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COLONEL AARON MJM, 




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V ICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



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• " LIFE 



COLOML AAROK BURR, 



VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



SKETCHES OF REV. AARON BURR, D.D., PRESIDENT OF PRINCETON COLLEGE, 

AND OF THEODOSIA, DAUGHTER OF COLONEL BURR AND WIFE 

OF GOVERNOR ALSTON, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



BY 

OHAELES BUEE TODD. 



EEPRINTED FROM THE AUTHOR'S "HISTORY OF THE BURR FAMILY." 



New York : 

S. W. GREEN, PRINTER, 16 AND 18 JACOB STREET. 

1879. 



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REV. AARON BURR, D. D. [46] 

Ox the 4th of January, 1716, there was born to Daniel Burr 
Esq., of Upper Meadow, a district in the northern limits of the 
present town of Fairfield, Ct. a son, on whom the graces that preside 
at birth, seem to have lavished all those gifts which they so charily 
bestow on the majority of mankind. 

He had a lively, intelligent, profound intellect, a handsome 
person, equable temper, sufficient wealth, and all the advantages 
of birth, breeding, and education, and still further to insure his 
successful rearing, five hearty, healthy boys, and three merry girls 
shared with him in the care and solicitude of his parents. 

'* From childhood," says his biographer,* '' he had a strong in- 
clination for learning, and early discovered tokens of that extraor- 
dinary quickness of intellect which afterward distinguished him." 
Fortunately his friends had the discernment to perceive this, and 
early determined to give him a liberal education, with a view to 
entering him later in some one of the learned professions. 

Accordingly, in his eighteenth year, he entered Yale College, 
then beginning to acquire that prestige as an educator of youth, 
which had before belonged exclusively to Harvard, and after the 
usual term of four years graduated with the highest honors of the 
class. This occurred in 1738. He was particularly proficient in 
Greek and Latin, and on receiving his first degree, was a candidate 
for, and received the privileges of a resident graduate on the Berke- 
ley foundation, which were only granted after competition, to the 
three best scholars in Greek and Latin of the class. 

The year after and while pursuing his post-graduate studies, 
an event occurred which exerted a controlling influence on his 
subsequent career. In this year he experienced that mys- 
terious change which we call conversion, and which has changed 
the life current of so many men,.-. A very interesting account 
of this event is given, in the following extract from his private 
papers : 

" This year God saw fit to open my eyes, and show me what a 
miserable creature I was. Until then I had spent my life in a 

• Stearns' Hist, of First Church, Newark, 



\\ 1909 



MEV. AARON BURB, D. D. 67 

dream, and as to the greatdesign of my life had lived in vain. 
Though before I had been under frequent conviction, and was 
driven to a form of religion, yet I knew nothing as I ought to 
know. But then I was brought to the footstool of sovereign grace, 
saw myself polluted by nature and practice, had affecting views 
of the Divine wrath I deserved, was made to despair of help in my- 
self, and almost concluded that my day of grace was passed. It 
pleased God at length to reveal his Son to me as an all sufficient 
Savior, and I hope, inclined me to receive him on the terms of the 
Gospel." 

His thoughts were now turned towards the Christian ministry, 
as the worthiest, most sacred and most responsible pursuit of man, 
and in September, 1736, he was licensed as a candidate for sacred 
orders. His first parish was Greenfield, Massachusetts, a pretty 
village in the valley of the Connecticut, a few miles above Spring- 
field. 

He remained there but a short time, and then removed to New 
Jersey, and preached, as the old chronicles inform us, at a place 
called Hanover ; while here, a wider sphere of action was opened 
before him. 

In 1677, a colony of Connecticut people, principally from New 
Haven, had settled on the fertile banks of the Passaic, in New 
Jersey. The church which they then founded had grown with 
the years, until it had now become a numerous and wealthy so- 
ciety, known as the First Church of Newark ; it was now without 
a pastor, and having heard of the piety and eloquence of the 
young preacher from Connecticut, they appointed a committee, in 
Nov., 1736, to go down to Hanover and treat with him, "on the 
subject of his becoming a candidate." Next month, Dec. 21st, it 
was put to vote " whether the town desire Mr. Aaron Burr should 
have a call for further improvement in the work of the ministry 
among us, as a candidate for further trial, which was carried in 
the affirmative, nemine contradicente.^^ They were cautious folk, 
however, and engaged him at first, for but one year, commencing 
Jan. 10, 1737. The connection proved mutually satisfactory, and 
at the expiration of the year he was ordained as their pastor, by 
the Presbytery of East Jersey, with which the church was then 
connected. His emotions, on being inducted into this responsible 
office, are thus referred to in his journal : ''Jan. the 25th, I was 
set apart to the work of the ministry by fasting, prayer, and im- 
position of hands. God grant that I may ever keep fresh in my 



68 FAIRFIELD BRANCH. 

mind the solemn charge that was then given, and never indulge 
trifling thoughts of what then appeared to me to be of such 
awful importance." 

The early part of his ministry was remarkable for that wonder- 
ful religious movement, which, commencing at Northampton and 
other towns in the Connecticut Valley, spread from town to town 
and'from point to point, until nearly the whole country was em- 
braced in its ever increasing circles. 

Great Britain also presented, at the same time, a similar phe- 
nomenon. This movement is known in religious annals as the 
" Great Awakening." Whitefield and the Wesleys were its leaders 
in England, and Whitefield, Edwards and Burr among its chief 
promoters in America.* 

The personal friendship and connection with Whitefield, begun 
at this time, forms one of the most charming passages in the life 
of this good man. The vessel in which the former took passage 
for this country was bound to Newport, R. I., and as it happened 
Mr. Burr was in that city when the vessel with its distinguished 
passenger arrived. It is probable that he accompanied Whitefield 
on his journey to Boston soon after ; at least he was in that city 
while the latter was preaching there, and his letters of this date 
contain many pleasant little scraps of information concerning the 
great preacher and his sermons. 

For instance, in one, the first of the series, he remarks, " To- 
day I heard Mr. Whitefield preach in Dr. Coleman's church. I 
am more and more pleased with the man." Again, <• on the 21st 
I heard him preach on the Common to about 10,000 people. On 
Monday visited him and had some conversation, to my satisfaction." 
"On the 23d went to hear him preach in Mr. Webb's church, but 
the house was crowded before he came. Same day Mr. Whitefield 
preached at Mr. Gee's church, and in the evening at Dr. Sewall's. 
On Saturday I went to hear him preach again, on the Common ; 
there were about 8,000 there. 

It was during Mr. Burr's stay in Boston at this time that an in- 
cident occurred, which is related as showing his remarkable power 
as a preacher. 

One evening a young lady very wealthy and accomplished, but 
a sceptic in religion, was passing by the church in which he was 

• A letter from Newark at this period mentions Mr. Burr as one of the ministers whom 
the good Lord had stirred up and inspired to water the seed sown by Mr. Whitefield in that 
region. 



BEV. AARON BURR, D. D. 



69 



to preach, and attracted by the crowd that was pouring in, entered. 
By and by Mr. Burr entered the desk. There being nothing 
remarkable in his appearance, she regarded him with contempt, 
and would have left the church had not a regard for appearances 
restrained her. But with the first deep, melodious tones of the 
preacher her interest was awakened; she listened with the most 
breathless attention to the sermon which followed, and at its close 
went out weeping and convinced. That evening dated a most 
decided change in her character and life; she became a humble, 
earnest Christian, and some years after died, in the triumphs of 

faith. 

After some weeks spent in Boston, Mr. Burr returned to his 

parochial duties in Newark. 

Some time after, in November, 1740, he was visited by Mr. 
Whitefield, who preached in his church with the most gratifying 
results. A correspondence was kept up, it is said, between the two 
until Mr. Burr's death. 

Two years after this visit, in June, 1742, the First Church of 
New Haven honored Mr. Burr with an invitation to become their 
assistant pastor with Mr. Noyes, and appointed a committee with 
President Clapp at their head, "to go down to Newark and lay 
the call before Mr. Burr, and at the same time to treat with the 
good people of Newark and gain their consent to Mr. Burr's re- 
moval." But both Mr. Burr and "the good people of Newark" 
seem to have been perfectly satisfied with their mutual relations, 
and the delegation was obliged to return home unsuccessful. Soon 
after we may suppose that Mr. Burr returned their visit, as he 
was chiefly occupied during this summer with sending the devoted 
Bramerd on his long cherished mission to the Indian tribes of the 
continent, and in the course of the summer made a long Journey 
into New England and urged upon its people the duty and neces- 
sity of christianizing the Indians about them, and also recom- 
mended Mr. Brainerd as well fitted, both by nature and grace, for 
the work. Other ministers seconded these efforts and the result 
was that, in 1744, Brainerd was ordained and sent on a mission to 
the Indians at the Forks of the Delaware. 

A marked peculiarity of President Burr's character was the 
large development in him of the paternal instinct,— a trait also 
shared by his famous son. 

He loved children, and had an instinctive desire to take every 
bright active boy he saw, and " make a man of him." As an edu- 



70 FAIRFIELD BRANCH. 

cator of youth, he was justly celebrated. Very early in his pastorate 
at Newark he gathered a class of boys, eight or ten about him, 
and instructed them in the principles of the English aud classical 
languages. This was but the beginning. 

On the 23d Oct., 1746, Jonathan Dickinson, John Pierson, 
EGenezer Pemberton, and Aaron Burr, with an equal number of 
lay associates, received a charter for a new college of New Jersey, 
and which was organized the first week in May, 1747, at Elizabeth- 
town. Of this institution Jonathan Dickinson was the first Presi- 
dent. 

In August, 1747, Mr. Dickinson died, and the students, eight in 
number, were removed to Newark, and placed under the care of 
Mr. Burr. The following September, Gov. Belcher granted a new 
chai'ter, under which the college is at present conducted, and on 
the 9th of November, 1748, Mr. Aaron Burr was unanimously 
chosen the first President of the new college, "an office," says the 
College Eecord, "which he was pleased modestly to accept, and 
took the oath of office required by the charter." His devotion to 
the interests of his new charge knew no bounds ; indeed, he is to 
be regarded not only as the first President and true founder of 
this sturdy giant of our day, but as its fostering parent as well. 

"The college," says Dr. Stearns, "was at the time in a feeble 
condition, and he not only contributed freely of his own means, 
but by the weight of his own influence and personal efforts, he 
was able to accomplish much in securing for it the patronage of 
the liberal, here and in other parts of the world." 

For the first three years of its existence, he received no salary 
whatever as President, and his intense interest in its welfare is 
shown in a letter of the period, which, after remarking that the 
college had lately drawn £200 in a lottery, adds, "It hath given 
the President such pleasure, that his spirits are greatly refreshed 
which were before very low."* Mr. Burr remained President of 
the college actively laboring in its behalf until his death in 1757. 
Indeed, it is highly probable that his unparalleled labors in its be- 
half were the main cause of his untimely decease. 

In the midst of this life of activity, occurred his marriage with 
Miss Esther Edwards, daughter of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards of 

• The autograph which accompanies this sketch, is from a paper in the Connecticut State 
Archives, praying the General Assembly for authority to hold a lottery in that State for the 
benefit of the college, which power was denied them by the law of New Jersey. The paper 
ie signed by Aaron Burr, Pres. of the college, as acting for the trustees. 



BEV. AARON BURR, D. D. 71 

Stockbridge, Mass. This event, and the manner of its accomplish- 
ment, created no small amount of gossip in the social circles of the 
day. Mr. Burr was then thirty-seven, the young lady twenty-one. 
His courtship, judging from the letters of a young gentleman then 
a student in Princeton College, to his friends describing the affair, 
was quite patriarchal. 

The young letter-writer thus describes it : " In the latter end 
of May, the president took a Journey into New England, and dur- 
ing his absence he made a visit of but three days, to the Eev. Mr. 
Edwards' daughter at Stockbridge ; in which short time, though 
he had no acquaintance, nor had ever seen the lady these six years, 
I suppose he accomplished his whole design, for it was not above a 
fortnight after his return here, before he sent a young fellow 
(who came out of college last fall) into New England to conduct 
her and her mother down here. 

" They came to town Saturday evening the 27th ult., and on 
Monday evening following, the nuptial ceremonies were celebrated 
between Mr. Burr and the young lady. As I have yet no manner 
of acquaintance with her, I cannot describe to you her qualifica- 
tions and properties. However, they say she is a very valuable 
lady. I think her a person of great beauty, though I must say I 
think her rather too young (being twenty-one years of age) for the 
President." 

A few weeks later, on becoming acquainted, he wrote again, 
giving his impressions of the lady: 

" I can't omit acquainting you that our president enjoys all the 
happiness that the married state can afford. I am sure, when he 
was in the condition of celibacy, the pleasure of his life bore no 
comparison to that he now possesses. 

"From the little acquaintance I have with his lady, I think her 
a woman of very good sense, of a genteel and virtuous education, 
amiable in her person, of great affability and agreeableness in con- 
versation, and a very excellent economist." 

The marriage was solemnized, June 29, 1752. Two years later. 
May 3, 1754, the old parsonage in Newark was enlivened by the 
birth of a daughter, Sarah, and again, Feb. 6, 1756, by the ad- 
vent of a son, Aaron. They were the only children of President 
and Esther Burr. 

In the autumn of 1756, the college buildings at Princeton 
were completed, and the president removed thither, severing his 
connection with the church which he had served to the great sat- 



72 FAIRFIELD BRANCH. 

isfaction of all parties, for twenty years. But the career of this 
busy and pious man was near its close. 

In August, 1757, he made one of his swift journeys into New 
England, penetrating as far as Stockbridge, the residence of his 
father-in-law. He returned home much exhausted, but was 
obliged to set off at once to Elizabethtown, to meet Governor 
Belcher, on pressing business connected with the college. 

At Elizabethtown he learned that the wife of the Rev. Caleb 
Smith was dead, and hastened to condole with his bereaved 
friend, and on his arrival was prevailed on to preach the funeral 
sermon of the deceased lady. 

On his return to Princeton, he suffered from attacks of inter- 
mittent fever, but disregarding it, made a forced journey to Phila- 
delphia, still on college business. 

From this journey, he returned utterly exhausted, only to meet 
fresh demands upon his energies, for Governor Belcher, his old 
friend and ally, the firm friend and patron of the college, had died 
siiddenly, and who but President Burr could fitly pronounce his 
funeral eulogiurp. He spent nearly the whole of that night in pre- 
paring it, and the next morning, nearly delirious with fever, travelled 
to Elizabethtown, where the funeral ceremonies were to be held. 

During the sermon his friends perceived with regret and alarm, 
that he was nearly prostrated by his disease ; this -was his last ser- 
mon. From Elizabethtown he returned to his home at Princeton, 
where he expired from the effects of the fever, September 24, 
1757. His funeral was celebrated in the college chapel, and his 
remains interred in the college churchyard, where, eighty years 
after, the body of his famous son was brought for burial. 

Few men, probably, have been more sincerely mourned than 
was President Burr. A large concourse of people, comprising 
many of the magnates of the land, gathered at his funeral. A 
glowing eulogium was pronounced upon him by Governor Living- 
ston, of New Jersey,* and the press and the pulpit vied in paying 
manly tributes to his virtue, talents and beneficence. 

Of President Burr's personal appearance and habits we have 
but few details, and they are chiefly supplied by his biographer. 
Dr. Stearns, and by Gov. Livingston. 

According to Dr. Stearns, he was small in stature, and of a 
delicate frame but capable of great effort. 

* Afterward published : a copy— and the only one that I have been able to find,— is pre- 
eerved in the Library of the Mass. Historical Society, Boston. 



REV. AARON BURR, D. D. 73 

" He was a small man, and very handsome, with clear dark 
eyes of a soft luster, a slender, shapely person, and the style and 
bearing of a prince," said the letter- writers of his day. 

" To encounter fatigue," says Gov. Livingston, " he had a 
heart of steel, and for the despatch of business the most amazing 
talents. As long as an enterprise appeared not absolutely impos- 
sible, he knew no discouragement, but in proportion to its diffi- 
culty augmented his diligence, and by an insuperable fortitude, 
frequently accomplished what his friends and acquaintances 
deemed utterly impossible. In private intercourse he was modest, 
easy, courteous and obliging." 

A perfect master of the art of pleasing in company, his presence 
threw a charm over every social circle. Temperate even to abste- 
miousness, he was a lover of hospitality, and possessing ampler 
means than most of his brethren, he distinguished himself as a 
bounteous giver. 

'•' As a pastor," says Dr. Stearns, " Mr. Burr was eminently 
faithful and assiduous ; of winning manners and distinguished 
skill in finding out and opening the avenues of the heart, he em- 
ployed his address, learning, and activity for the promotion of the 
moral improvement and spiritual welfare of the souls committed 
to him." 

Gov. Livingston also touches upon this topic. 

" He was none of those downy doctors who soothe their hear- 
ers into delusive hopes of Divine acceptance, or substitute exter- 
nal morality in the room of vital godliness. On the contrary, he 
scorned to proclaim the peace of God, until the rebel had laid 
down his arms and returned to his allegiance. He was an am- 
bassador that adhered inviolably to his instructions, and never ac- 
ceded to a treaty that would not be ratified in the court of Heaven. 
He searched the conscience with the terror of the law, before 
he assuaged its anguish with the balm of Gilead, or presented the 
sweet emollients of a bleeding Deity. He acted in short, like one 
not intrusted with the lives and fortunes, but the everlasting in- 
terests of his fellow mortals, and therefore made it his business to 
advance the divine life, and restore the beautiful image of God 
displaced by the apostacy of man." 

This may seem like extraordinary eulogy, but there is evidence 
that it was truth. 

There are several portraits of President Burr in existence, but 
all I believe copies of an original portrait, which was captured by 



74 FAIRFIELD BRANCH. 

the British during the Revolution, and somewhat defaced, but 
was afterward recovered and restored. The pamtmg rn the col- 
lege librarv is copied from that portrait. , ,. , j 
Mr Burr was not a voluminous writer. In 1752 he published 
a Latin Grammar, known as the Newark Grammar, ani/v'''* 
tas used in the college long after his death. He also publ.si.ed a 
pamphlet of 60 pages called "The Supreme De.ty of our Lord 
Jesus Christ Maintained ;" a fast day sermon, deliver d Jan. 1 
iraS •' The Watchman's Answer to the Question, What of the 
Night?" A sermon, 1756, and the funeral sermon on Gov. 

^"'t Ut^Oration by him on the death of Philip Doddrige, is 
Btill preserved in manuscript in the college hbrary. 

Fac-simile of Autograph ; 



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His monument in the Princeton churchyard, bears this in- 
scription : ^ g 

Reverend! admodum viri 

AARONIS BURR, A.M. 

Collegii Neo Caesariensis Praesidiis 

Natus apud Fairfield Connecticuteusmm 

IV Januarii A. D. MDCCXVI 

S. V. 

Honesta in eadem Colonia Familia oriundus 

Collegio Yalensi innutritus 
Novarc« Sacria innutritus MDCCXXXVIII 
Anno circiter viginti pastoral! Munere 
Fideliter Fructus 
Collegii N. C. Presidium MDCCXLVIII accepit 
In narli. Aulaux sub Finem MDCCLVI translatus 
Defunctus hoc vico XXIV Septembris 
A. D. MDCCLVII S. N. 
^tatis XLII eheu quam brevis 
Huic Marmori eubjicitur quod mori potuit 
Quod immortale vindicarunt coeli 
Quseris viator Qualis Quantusque fuit 
Perpaucis Accipe 



BEV. AARON BURB, D. D. 76 

Vir corpore parvo ac tennui 

Studiis vigiliis assiduis que laboribus macro 

Sagacitate, Perspici cacitate Agilitate 

Ac Solertia (si fas dicere) 

Plus quam huinana pene 

Angelica 

Anima ferme totus 

Omnigena Literatura instructus 

Tbeologia prjestantior 

Concionator volubilis suavis et suadus 

Orator facundus 

Moribus facilis Candidas et jucundus 

Vita egregie liberalis ac beneficus 

Supra vero omnia emicuerunt 

Pietas ac Benevolentia 

Sed ah ! quanta et quota Ingenii 

Industriae Prudentiae Patientiae 

Caeterarumque omnium virtutem 

Exemplaria 

Marmoris Sepulcliralis Augustia Reticebit 

Multum desideratus multum dilectus 

Humaui generis Deliciae 

O ! infandum sui Desidarium 

Gemit Ecclesia plorat accademia 

At Coelum plaudit dum ille 

Ingreditur 

In Gaudium Domini Dulce loquentia 

Enge bone et fidelis 

Serve 

Abi viator tuam respiee finem. 



COL. AARON BURR. [133] 

It would be impossible in a work of this kind to ignore the 
life and services of such a character as Aaron Burr, even if there 
was any desire of doing so ; it would be equally impossible for 
the compiler, having after careful study, reached certain conclu- 
Bions regarding him, to ignore them, and write in the strain of 
calumny and reproach, which has obtained with most writers in 
treating of this remarkable man — for remarkable he was beyond 
cavil — remarkable in his ancestry, his achievements, his un- 
exampled misfortunes, and unexampled fortitude. His was a 
strong character though a faulty one — a character that commands 
respect and admiration, while at the same time one cannot avoid 
noticing and commenting upon many defects. In this work the 
compiler proposes to treat of him with independence, without 
undue bias, and certainly without prejudice, stating only what he 
believes to be the truth in regard to his life and character. 

The reader will please remember that his object has been to 
prepare a careful, accurate sketch of his distinguished subject, for 
preservation in a family memorial, and that he disclaims any com- 
petition in point of literary merit or finish, with the biogra- 
phers that have preceded him ; and further, if any one feels im- 
pelled to differ from the views herein advanced, he asks from them 
fair and honorable treatment, deprecating the harsh invective and 
coarse abuse that has hitherto assailed all who have dared express 
a favorable opinion of Aaron Burr. 

To gain the end desired, it will be necessary to treat of his 
earlier career with almost the pitiless brevity of a compendium. 
He was born in the parsonage of the First Church, Newark, Feb. 
6, 1756. Before the second year of his life had passed, it was 
clouded by the death of his father, mother, and grandparents, and 
he was left to the hazardous experiment of being reared in an 
uncle's family, who, however conscientious, was, it is evident, no fit 
custodian for such a genius. 

This uncle was Timothy Edwards, the eldest son of President 
Edwards; he resided at Elizabeth town, N. J., and at the age of 
three the little Aaron became an inmate of his family. Left an 



COL. AARON BURR. 81 

ample patrimony, his uncle made free use of it in his education, 
and provided for him an excellent tutor, Mr. Tappan Eeeve, who 
some years later became his brother-in-law, and later still was 
widely known as Chief Judge of the Supreme Court of Connecti- 
cut, and founder of the Litchfield Law School. So precocious 
was the boy. that at eleven he. was ready for college, and applied 
to the faculty of Princeton for admission, but was refused solely, 
as he himself said, "on account of his years and inches." He 
contrived, however, to triumph over the faculty by entering the 
sophomore class two years later, in 1769, and graduated with dis- 
tinction in September, 1772. 

The year that followed was spent partly at Princeton, among 
his "books, and partly at Elizabeth town in pursuit of those manly 
sports which young men of fortune sometimes affect. During this 
year too, the subject of a profession was much in his thoughts. His 
friends and the Presbyterian world generally expected him to choose 
the profession which his father and grandfather had so adorned. 
Conscience, and the silent influence of the dead impelled him in the 
same direction. On the other hand, he had no doubt imbibed 
much of the speculative French philosophy then so rife, and which, 
while it questioned the truth of revelation, pointed to the attain- 
ment of fame, and the indulgence of passion as the chief means of 
obtaining happiness. In this state of indecision, he became in the 
fall of 1774, an inmate of Dr. Bellamy's famous school at Bethle- 
hem, Connecticut. This gentleman was the successor in theology 
of President Edwards, and his reputation for learning and piety 
attracted to his home so many candidates for the ministry, that it 
assumed quite the character of a theological seminary. 

Here Bui'r fought the great battle of Armageddon. 

We cannot give the details of the conflict, or say how largely 
the result was due to the absurd and repelling system of theology 
then in vogue, but we know that the result of his studies was a 
conviction, to use his own words " that the road to heaven was open 
to all alike," and that he resolved there to maintain henceforth 
an imperturbable silence on religious matters. There is however 
no evidence that he adopted extreme atheistic views. 

In the fall of 1774, we find him a law student with Tappan 
Eeeve, now the proud husband of pretty Salhe Burr, and principal 
of a law school at Litchfield, Conn., which had already become fa- 
mous. For a few months only Burr pored over his musty law-books, 
then the guns of Lexington summoned him to arms with thou- 
6 



82 FAIRFIELD BRANCH. 

sands of other gallant spirits, and buckling on his sword he set off 
without delay to join the army at Boston. 

It was in July, 1775 that Burr and his friend Ogden, — after- 
ward Colonel. — joined the Continental army, and it was in August 
of the same year that after five weeks of inaction, he rose from a 
sick bed to volunteer in Col. Benedict Arnold's expedition then pre- 
paring for its famous march through the wilderness of Maine to 
strike Quebec and Canada. He armed and equipped a company 
at his own expense, and taking command, with the rank of Captain, 
marched them to Newburyport, Mass., where the little army was to 
rendezvous. 

On Tuesday the 19th of September, at ten in the morning, the 
expedition 1,100 strong embarked and stood away for the mouth of 
the Kennebec, which they reached on the 23d. From that point 
they were to follow the Kennebec to Dead River, up that stream to 
its source near Bald Mountain, then over a portage of a few miles 
to Lake Megantic the source of the Chaudiere, which would lead 
them to the St. Lawrence and Quebec. This journey was to be 
performed through an unbroken wilderness 600 miles in extent. 
On the 4th of October the army took leave of houses and settle- 
ments, and plunged into this wilderness ; 27 days after, on the 31st 
of October, they reached the settlements on the Chaudiere River. 
These were days of the severest privations ; thirty times or more 
the boats were unloaded and borne across portages, miles in length, 
or hauled by main strength around rapids and falls. Once a sud- 
den flood destroyed half the boats and provisions, and starvation 
threatened the troops. For days they lived upon dogs and reptiles, 
they even ate the leather of their shoes and cartridge-boxes, and 
every thing that could afford nourishment. Many sickened, others 
deserted, and when at last they approached the settlements it was 
found that sickness, death and desertion, had reduced their num- 
bers to barely 600 effective men. 

Through it all our young soldier displayed the courage and en- 
durance of a veteran. He animated the men with his sprightli- 
ness and wit, or he led hunting parties in quest of game ; or in 
the van of his division steered the foremost boat in its descent of 
the turbulent river ; in all positions he proved himself a worthy 
member of the gallant six hundred who marched with Arnold 
through the wilderness, and came out strong in life and limb, be- 
fore Quebec. 

As the force approached the latter place a messenger was 



COL. AAEON BUBB. 83 

needed to communicate with Montgomery, then at Montreal, 120 
miles distant. No one volunteered for this perilous enterprise 
until at last "little Burr" stepped out. Arnold, running his eye 
over the stripling, demurred to sending such a youth, but Burr 
persisted, and at length the commission was given him. 

Fertile of expedient, he had already devised a plan for execut- 
ing his mission. Knowing that the religious chiefs of the country 
were opposed to British rule, he donned the garb of a young priest, 
and sought an interview with the chief of a religious house near 
by, and to him, after a few preliminaries, frankly unfolded his 
plan ; this, the worthy prelate, after his astonishment had passed, 
heartily seconded, and Burr was passed quickly and safely from 
one religious house to another, in the disguise of a priest, until he 
reached Montgomery, who was so delighted with his address and 
gallantry that he made him his aid-de-camp on the spot, with the 
rank of captain. 

Twenty-four hours after, Montgomery, with his 300 available 
men, was on the march to join Arnold at Quebec. They arrived 
there December 1, 1775. The succeeding thirty days history has 
made immortal. 

There was, first, the council of war which decided on the as- 
sault, and which gave to Burr the command of a forlorn hope of 
forty men, whom he was to select and drill in the use of scaling 
ladders, ropes, grapnels, and all the paraphernalia of the assault. 
After the council came the long waiting for the midnight storm, 
which burst upon them at last on the 31st of December. At five 
in the morning the order to assault was given, the air then being 
so thick with snow that every thing was hidden : 900 men an- 
swered to the roll call. These were divided into four parties, two 
for the attack and two to distract the enemy's attention by feints 
at various points. 

Arnold led one of the attacking parties and Montgomery the 
other. Side by side with his general that morning marched 
Captain Burr; beside them were two other aids, a sergeant and the 
French guide, these six constituting the group in advance. The 
column swept swiftly and silently along the St. Lawrence toward 
the defences under Cape Diamond, and in a few moments struck 
the first of these— a line of pickets firmly fastened in the ground. 
These were wrenched away in an instant, and the column rushed 
on to a second line. Here it was discovered by the British guard, 
who fired an ineffectual volley and fled in dismay to a block-house 



84 fairfieldWranch. 

a few yards in the rear. This latter was quite a fortress, built of 
ponderous logs, loop-holed above for musketry, and pierced below 
for two twelve-pounders, which, charged with grape and canister, 
commanded the gorge up which the party was now advancing. 
The garrison, wild with fear, fled precipitately without firing a shot. 
Thus the gate to the city was thrown wide open, but the besiegers 
failed to appear in the breach ; they were some yards below, strug- 
gling with the huge blocks of ice which a winter flood in the St 
Lawrence had left in their path. 

At this critical juncture one of the fugitives ventured back to 
the block-house ; peeping through one of the port-holes, he saw the 
attacking column a few yards off and turned to fly again, but as 
he did so, touched a match to one of those loaded cannon. That 
simple act saved Quebec. Montgomery, the two aids, the sergeant, 
every man that marched in front of the column, except Burr and 
the guide, were stricken down by the discharge, and in a moment 
the fortunes of the day were changed, and the victory which 
seemed in the grasp of the provincials was turned into defeat. 
" At this critical moment," says Mr. Parton, ''' Burr was as cool, as 
determined, as eager to go forward as at the most exultant moment 
of the advance." 

''When dismay and consternation universally prevailed," testi- 
fied Capt. Piatt, an eye-witness of the scene, ''Burr animated the 
troops and made many efforts to lead them on, and stimulated 
them to enter the lower town." But the enemy reappeared in 
force at the block-house and the commanding officer ordered a re- 
treat, by this act giving Capt. Burr an opportunity to perform an 
action that redeems humanity and proved him the impulsive, gen- 
erous being that his friends knew him to have been. As the deed 
itself has been called in question, I give an account of it in the 
words of the Rev. Samuel Spring, Chaplain in Arnold's expedition, 
and who was present at the assault. After describing the attack 
ne says : " It was a heavy snow storm, Montgomery had fallen, the 
British troops were advancing towards the dead body, and little 
Burr teas hastening from the fire of the enemy, up to his knees in 
snow, tuith Montgomery's body on his shoulders." Some forty- 
yards he staggered on under his burden, and was then obliged to 
drop it to avoid capture by the enemy. * see Appendix d. 

Thirty years later his friends were fond of detailing this inci- 
dent in the face of the clamor that arose against Aaron Burr the 
traitor. 



COL. AARON BURR. 8 

Captain Burr remained with the command until May, — a part 
of the time performing the duties of brigade major — and then re- 
signed and set out for New York, via. Albany. 

He arrived in New York safely and served for a time as Wash- 
ington's aid, but not liking the clerical duties which the position 
imposed, he was soon after transferred, at the instance of Governor 
Hancock, to the staff of Gen. Putnam, then busily engaged in 
fortifying the city against the British force in the harbor. Put- 
nam gave him work to do, the stirring active work of the soldier, 
and with him he was perfectly contented. 

A few days after, occurred the disastrous battles of Long 
Island, and the famous retreat of the Americans from Manhattan. 

In this retreat Capt. Burr was the hero of an action which 
won him almost universal applause. He had been scouting in the 
lower part of the island, and was flying in full gallop before the 
enemy, when he came upon an American brigade, sheltered in a 
mud fort, which stood on or about the present line of Grand Street. 
" What are you doing here ?" Burr demanded. Gen. Knox the 
commander explained that he had been left behind by mistake, 
and deeming himself surrounded, he had determined to hold the 
fort. Burr ridiculed the idea, and addressing the men, told them 
if they remained there they would surely be in the British prison 
ships before morning. He then led them by blind and circuitous 
paths to the Hudson, and safely rejoined the main army, with the 
loss of but a few stragglers. These men ever after regarded him 
as their deliverer from British prison ships, and the whole army 
rang with his praises, yet his name was not even mentioned in the 
dispatches of the commander-in-chief. In 1777, Captain Burr was 
promoted to the rank of Lieut. Colonel. His superior officer. Col. 
Malcolm, was a New York merchant of no*military ability, and the 
actual command of the regiment devolved upon Burr. This re- 
sponsibility he cheerfully assumed, and in a few months brought 
his men— all raw levies— into the most perfect state of discipline. 

Through the fall of this year his regiment was detailed for 
scouting duty in New Jersey, then the debatable ground between 
the two armies. 

Here he first met Mrs. Prevost, the widow of a British officer, 
then residing at Paramus, and who afterward became his wife. 

In November he joined the main army for the winter canton- 
ment at Valley Forge, and through the winter was in command 
of a very responsible post called "the Gulf," some ten miles dis- 



86 FAIRFIELD BKAJ^fp. 

tant from the main body, and which would be the point first at- 
tacked, should the enemy make a descent on the camp. He owed 
this appointment it is said, to Gen. McDougal), who had been his 
superior officer at the battle of Long Island. He next saw active 
service at the famous battle of Monmouth. June 28, and 30, 1778. 
Here he commanded a brigade in Lord Sterling's division and fully 
sustained that reputation for address and gallantry which he had 
before earned. After the battle, almost worn out with fatigue and 
exposure, he was sent to New York with orders to watch the ene- 
my's movements in that quarter and report, which task he per- 
formed with the utmost spirit and success. Returned from this 
duty, he was ordered to march at once with his regiment to West 
Point ; the regiment, however, went forward without him, he being 
detailed on the eve of departure, for the delicate service of con- 
ducting several influential tories within the British lines. A few 
weeks later he reported at West Point, but finding himself com- 
pletely broken in health, he wrote to Washington, asking leave of 
absence without pay, until the next campaign, and urging as a /, 

reason his utter unfitness for military duty. Washington granted «j{ 

him leave of absence but continued his pay. This, however. Burr 
utterly refused to accept, and the matter was compromised by his ^ 

being placed in command of West Point, where he remained until 
his health was in a measure regained. He was now twenty-three 
years of age. 

About the 1st of January, 1779, Col. Burr received his last and 
most important command, being placed in charge of the West- i 

Chester " lines," extending from the Hudson to the Sound, a dis- 
tance of 14 miles, traversing a section the most lawless and turbu- 
lent in the country, and which former commanders had utterly 
failed to control ; here Whigs plundered Tories, and Tories harried I 

Whigs with the utmost impartiality, and both parties combined to ^^ I 

plunder the peaceful Quakers, who formed by far the largest por- 
tion of the population. To check these marauders. Burr pro- 
claimed martial law, and proceeded to punish all offenders with J 
the utmost rigor. His energy was untiring, and his vigilance 
argus-eyed. 1 

To protect his posts, he prescribed for himself and his subor- t 

dinates a course of the extremest vigilance, and visited with the ' 

severest penalties any departure from it. Next he prepared a list 
of the inhabitants of his district, and divided them into their 
several classes, such as Whigs, Tories, half whigs, spies and others ; 



GOL. ARRON BURR. 87 

and further prepared an accurate map of the country, showing the 
roads, creeks, swamps, woods and other avenues of escape for par- 
ties flying from pursuit. To these safeguards, he added a perfect 
system of scouts and espionage, and so managed all, that order and 
quiet was restored to the whole region covered by his force. 

If, during this winter he showed himself gallant in war, he 
also proved himself no laggard in love, for twice during the period, 
he contrived to visit Mrs. Prevost, at Paramus, thirty miles dis- 
tant, on both occasions at night, and with such secrecy that his 
absence from camp was not suspected. 

But the labors of this command proved to be too exhaustive 
a drain on a once splendid, but now enfeebled constitution, and 
on the 10th of March, 1779, he was forced to send in his com- 
mission to Gen. Washington, stating the circumstances of his 
case, and asking a discharge ; in reply, "Washington wrote a letter 
accepting his resignation, and regretting " not only the loss of a 
good officer, but the causes which made it necessary." 

Thus, after four years of active military life. Col. Burr became 
again a private citizen. 

Eighteen months were spent in recruiting his shattered health, 
then he resumed the legal studies which four years before he had 
laid down at the call of his country. His first tutor was Judge 
Patterson, of New Jersey ; but not satisfied with his progress under 
him he removed, in the spring of 1781, to Haverstraw, N. Y., and 
took up his abode with Mr. Thomas Smith, a lawyer of note, for- 
merly of New York, but now thrown out of business by the Brit- 
ish occupation of that city. Here Burr pursued his studies with 
the utmost dispatch, living abstemiously, and poring over his books 
twenty hours out of the twenty-four. 

There were sevei'al reasons for this intense application. His 
splendid patrimony was all gone, spent largely with that inconsid- 
erate generosity which was his bane, to feed, clothe, and arm the 
destitute soldiers of his command, and his purse needed replenish- 
ing. Again the success of the American cause, then well assured, 
would give to the Whig lawyers all the business and emoluments 
of the profession. Lastly, he contemplated marriage, and only a 
lucrative practice stood in the way of home comforts and domestic 
happiness. After reading law twelve months this man of wonderful 
gifts thought himself competent to practice, and applied for admis- 
sion to the bar ; but to his dismay he was confronted with a rule of 
the court which required candidates to spend at least three years in 



88 FAIRFIELD ^ANCH. 

the study of the law ; he could boast of but one, nor could he find a 
lawyer disinterested enough to move a suspension of the rule. He 
therefore uppeured in court and himself offered and argued the mo- 
tion, reminding the court that but for his services in the field he 
would long before have completed his studies, and that in his case at 
least there were grave reasons for the suspension of the rule. The 
judge, after hearing his plea, decided that the rule might in his 
case be dispensed with, provided he could show that he possessed 
the requisite qualifications, and a most rigorous examination hav- 
ing proved his fitness, he was licensed an Attorney on the 19th of 
January, 1782. 

The young lawyer at once took an office in Albany and began 
the practice of the law, and was so successful that in three months 
he thought it prudent to marry. 

The wedding accordingly took place July 2, 1782, in the Dutch 
Reformed Church at Paramus, the Rev. David Bogart, pastor 
of the church, performing the ceremony. This marriage certainly 
gives no color to the popular belief that Col. Burr was a cold, 
selfish, unprincipled schemer, with an eye always open to the main 
chance. He was young, handsome, well born, a rising man in his 
profession, and might no doubt have formed an alliance with any 
one of the wealthy and powerful families that lent lustre to the 
annals of their State. This would have been the course of a poli- 
tician. But Burr, disdaining these advantages, married a lady 
without wealth, position, or beauty, and at least ten years his senior, 
simply because he loved her, and he loved her, it is well to note, 
because she had the truest heart, the ripest intellect, and the most 
winning and graceful manners of any woman he had ever met. 

It was a favorite remark of his, in later years, that if he was 
more easy and graceful in manner than other men it was from the 
unconscious influence of her spirit and graces upon him. 

I think it should be mentioned here — because the opposite has 
been stated — that the marriage was conducive of great happiness 
to both, and that Col. Burr was to the end the most faithful and de- 
voted of husbands. The young couple at once began housekeep- 
ing in a pleasant mansion in the city of Albany, and there they 
continued to reside, (receiving in the first year of their marriage a 
lovely daughter, Theodosia, to their home.) until, in the fall of 
1784 Burr's increasing law business in New York necessitated his 
removal to that city. In New York he took a front rank among 
the leaders of the bar, and his reputation overwhelmed him 



COL. AARON BURR. 89 

with business ; by many he was regarded as superior even to 

Hamilton. 

He was the most successful lawyer that ever plead, and it is said 
never lost a case in which he was alone engaged. Yet the general 
verdict is that he was not a great lawyer. Perhaps not. He cer- 
tainly never affected greatness. A soldier by nature and profession, 
he regarded the end from the beginning and carried his soldierly 
tacticts into the courts ; he always used the means best calculated 
to gain his ends. If learning and eloquence were necessary, he 
could be both learned and eloquent. If appeal, argument, sarcasm, 
invective promised to be more effective, he used them, or he would 
win by showing the weak points of his adversary's case rather than 
the strong points of his own. 

He was careful to go into action thoroughly furnished ; his 
weapons were always at command, and his armor without flaw ; 
like most lawyers, he at times skirmished pretty close to the cita- 
del of truth, but it can not be proved that he ever resorted to 
dishonorable means to gain an end, while it must be said in his 
praise, that he was keenly alive to the interests of his clients, and 
was never known to betray a professional trust. 

His legal practice covered a period of nearly sixty years- 
one of the longest on record, and many of his cases and opinions, 
notably the Medcef Eden case, and the opinion on the contested 
election in New York, in 1792, attracted national attention. 

One thing which I have observed in regard to Col. Burr, is, 
that as a lawyer he is held by the New York bar in the greatest 
respect, and his influence for good, both in shaping laws and pro- 
moting justice, is freely admitted. 

■ His first appearance in politics was in 1784, when he was elect- 
ed to a seat in the New York Assembly. He filled the same po- 
sition in 1785. In 1789, Gov. Clinton appointed him Attorney 
General of New York. In March, 1790, the legislature named 
him one of the three commissioners, to decide and classify the 
claims of individuals who had rendered services, or sustained 
losses in the Eevolutionary War. 

The next year he was placed on a commission with the Gov- 
ernor, Secretary, Treasurer and Auditor, to sell the waste and un- 
claimed lands of the State, the proceeds to be applied to liquidating 
its war debt and claims. The ability with which he performed 
the duties of these positions, was the main cause of his subse- 
quent marvelous political advancement. 



90 FAIRFIELD 9tANCH. 

In January, 1791, two years after his entrance upon public 
life, he was elected to represent the State of New York 
in the National Senate, and on the 24th of October — the 
first day of the session — he took his seat as a member of 
that body. The day after, he received a very flattering recognition, 
being appointed chairman of the committee to draft the senate's 
reply to the President's annual address. 

Of Col. Burr's course in the senate, we have only the most 
meagre details. That body, patterned after the English House of 
Lords — then sat with closed doors, and little more than the record 
of votes was given to the public. We know, however, that he served 
the full term of six years, that he acted generally with the Kepub- 
lican party, that he was the acknowledged leader and champion of 
that side of the House, that he advocated among other important 
measures, an open session of the senate, lower rates of postage, 
substantial aid to the French people in their struggle for liberty, 
and the gradual abolition of slavery. He also gained a great re})u- 
tation as an orator, although no utterance of his now exists. A 
great speech delivered by Col. Burr against the ratification of Jay's 
treaty with Great Britain, in 1795, is mentioned by the newspapers 
of that day, but no report of it is given. 

As the election, in April, 1792, of a Governor for the State 
of New York drew near, Col. Burr was frequently mentioned as 
a candidate, but Hamilton's adverse influence prevented his 
nomination. 

In 1791. Gov. Clinton nominated him to the bench of the Su- 
preme Court of his State, but he declined the honor, preferring 
his seat in the Senate. 

In November, 1792, the young nation was to elect for the sec- 
ond time a President and Vice President. 

Washington, it was well known, would fill the first oflBce ; as to 
the incumbent of the second, some uncertainty existed. John 
Adams was the candidate of the Federal party ; in the Kepublican, 
the choice lay between George Clinton and Mr. Burr, but Mr. 
Burr's claims were in the end set aside, and Mr. Clinton was 
nominated. 

In the succeeding presidential election, however, our hero came 
more prominently before the country, as a candidate for these 
high ofiices. In that canvass, John Adams received 71 votes, 
Thomas Jefferson 68, Thomas Pinckney 59, and Aaron Burr 30. 
About this time, and while he was in the Senate, he sustained "n 



COL. AARON BURR. ^^ 

irreparable loss in the death of his wife, from cancer, after a long 
and painful Illness. 

How much Col. Burr's subsequent misfortunes were due to 
the loss of this estimable lady, can not be determined, but it is 
certain that, had she lived, his career would have had a very dif- 
ferent ending. She died in the spring of 1794. On the 4th of 
March, 1797, Col. Burr's term in the Senate expired, and he was 
succeeded by Gen. Philip Schuyler, the Federal party being then 
in the ascendant in New York. 

Burr returned to his law business in the metropolis, without 
however losing his hold on national politics. On the contrary he 
had formed the design of destroying at a blow Federal supremacy 
in the United States. For two years he worked in silence, then 
in April, 1800, the time came for him to show his hand. 

The fourth presidential election was but six months distant, 
and the rival parties were already in the field. They were two— 
the Federal, a party of old renown, strong in the prestige of vic- 
tory, conservative, arrogant, English in everything but in name, 
and clinging tenaciously to class privileges and class domination. 

Its great rival, the Republican party, was liberal and progres- 
sive in the extreme. It was the popular party, par excellence, and 
as much French as the other was English. It advocated an open 
senate, a free press, free speech, free schools, and free religion. 
Its leading principle was that so pithily expressed by Mr. Seward, 
"the emancipation of the masses from the domination of classes." 
Of this party Thomas Jefferson was the nominal leader, the 
historical figure-head, but its real imperator was Aaron Burr, the 
man who, in the conflict which we are now to consider, taught it 
how to win. In those days the legislature of each State cast the 
vote of its State for President. It early became apparent that 
New York would decide the presidential contest. It was also ap- 
parent, that if the Eepublicans could secure the New York legis- 
lature, (to be chosen in April, 1800,) the national •ssue was al- 
ready decided, and to attain this object Burr had planned and 
toiled during the two previous years, and now redoubled his ex- 
ertions. 

It was a mistake of Hamilton's that made his great rival's tri- 
umph possible. That chieftain strong in Federal supremacy, gath- 
ered his friends together a few weeks before the election, and made 
out a list of his candidates from the city for assemblymen. They 
were all his personal friends and men of but little weight in the 



92 FAIRFlELD^ttANGH. 



community. Burr, when the slate was brought to him, perceived 
at once his adversary's great mistake, and proceeded to profit by it. 
He immediately sat down and prepared his list of candidatcg. At 
its head he placed George Clinton, so long Governor of the State. 
Then came Gen. Gates, Brockholst Livingston, and other names 
of national reputation. The next and more difficult step was to 
persuade these gentlemen to allow their names to be used, but by 
bringing his matchless powers of persuasion to bear, he succeeded 
in this also. Then a public meeting was held and the ticket rati- 
fied with immense enthusiasm. 

Simultaneously Burr began organizing his army for the cam- 
paign. The strictest discipline was ordered and enforced. '"Every 
member was obliged to submit to the will of the majority," and 
"that majority was made to move at the beck of committees, 
which concentrated the power in the hands of a few individuals." 
Ward and general meetings were held almost daily. Complete 
lists of the voters were made out with the political history and 
affiliations of each ; pamphlets and political speeches were dissem- 
inated, and no means left untried that might lead to success. 
The polls opened April 20th, and closed May 3d, at sunset, and 
before the city had sunk to rest, it was known that the Republican 
cause had won in the city by a majority of 490 votes. This decided 
the election throughout the State. 

Hamilton seems to have been nearly frantic over his defeat, or 
he never would have adopted the mean expedient which he did, to 
wrest from his opponents the fruits of their hard won victory. 
He at once called a caucus of his party, and with its concurrence, 
wrote to Governor Jay, urging him to call an extra session of 
the old legislature, which was still in existence, that it might take 
the power of choosing presidential electors from the legislature 
and give it to the people, thus leaving the whole case to be de- 
cided again by the ballot. This letter was sent, and the next day 
a complete expose of the whole plan, with an account of the cau- 
cus, and the contents of the letter were published in the Repub- 
lican journals, to the no small astonishment of the "caucus," 
which had concocted it. Governor Jay, however, refused to sanc- 
tion any such proceedings, and the scheme proved futile. 

A few days after the New York election, a Republican caucus 
at Philadelphia nominated Thomas Jefferson for President, and 
Aaron Burr for Vice President of the United States. 

The election which followed in November, resulted in the well 



COL. AARON BURR. 93 

known tie,* Jefferson having 73 votes. Burr 73, Adams 65, Pinck- 
ney 64, and made a choice by the House of Kepresentatives neces- 
sary. Then ensued a contest such as was never known before in 
the comparatively peaceful history of parties. 

The politicians were painfully active, and the country fairly 
ablaze with excitement. The main interest centered of course on 
the rival chiefs, who remained at their posts, Jefferson at Wash- 
ington, aud Burr at Albany, quietly performing his duties as As- 
semblyman. 

"Had Aaron Burr not aroused prejudice by marrying a Brit- 
ish wife, he would have been elected President by a large major- 
ity," was the remark of a prominent State official, to the writer. 
Perhaps so : smaller things have ere this changed the popular 
vote and the gentleman spoke with authority, his father having 
been the fellow aid de camp, and intimate friend of Col. Burr. 

But whether this be true or not, it is certain that at any time 
between the declaration of the vote and the House's decision 
thereon, the merest whisper on his part, the lifting of a finger 
even, would have placed him in the seat of Washington and of 
Adams. The Federal party was almost a unit in his support. 
Alike from his antecedents and his political record, they argued 
that his ascendency would be less detrimental to Federalism and 
the public good, than that of Jefferson. In a file of the " Con- 
necticut Courant,"for 1801, published at Hartford, and the organ 
of the Federal party in New England, I find a long article on 
this "crisis," which forcibly and even vehemently urges Burr's 
claims. "Col. Burr," remarks the writer, "is a man of the first 
talents, and the most virtuous intentions." "A man who resolves 
while others deliberate, and who executes while others resolve." 
In the same article the writer speaks of Jefferson in terms much less 
complimentary. But Connecticut always was partial to Burr ; 
she had not forgotten the services of his fathers. Cabot of Massa- 
chusetts, Carroll of Carrollton, Secretary Wolcot of Connecticut, 
and many others openly expressed their preference. 

He had a strong following too in his own party. Gov. Clinton 
favored him. His friends in New York, Swartwout, Van Ness, 
and others repeatedly begged permission to work for his interests. 
But Burr, in the first moments of the contest, seems to have de- 
cided to act according to the dictates of honor and probity. 

* At that time the candidate who received the greatest number of votes was declared 
President. 



94 FAIRFIEL^B RANCH. 

Dec. 16th,, the day after the tie was declared, he wrote to a 
friend, dischiiming all competition. '' As to my friends," said he, 
*' they would dishonor my views, and insult my feelings bv a sus- 
picion, that I would submit to be instrumental in counteracting 
the wishes and expectations of the United States." 

That he maintained this position all through the contest is 
shown by the letters of his cotemporaries, many of them his per- 
sonal and political enemies. Thus Feb. 12th, Judge Cooi)er of 
New York, father of the novelist, wrote from Washington (where 
the day before the House had convened), '* We have postponed 
voting for the President until to morrow." "All stand firm, Jeffer- 
son 8, Burr 6, divided 2. "Had Burr done anything for himself 
he luould long ere this have been President.''^ 

Also Bayard of Delaware who gave the casting vote for Jeffer- 
son, wrote to Hamilton soon after the event, giving the reasons 
for his action, and after stating certain considerations which 
would have induced him to vote for Burr, he proceeds, ''but I 
was enabled soon to perceive that he (Burr) was determined not 
to shackle himself with Federal principles," and further on in the 
same letter he says, " The means existed of electing Burr, but 
this required his cooperation : by deceiving one man, (a great 
block-head) and tempting two (not incorrupt), he might have se- 
cured the majority of the States." 

Other testimony might be advanced to disprove the charge 
often made, that during this contest Col. Burr intrigued for the 
Presidency. The result disproves it, for had he intrigued at all 
he might easily have won ; as it was, the house, after seven days of 
balloting and debate, by a majority of one State, declared Thomas 
Jefferson President. Aaron Burr receiving the next highest num- 
ber of votes became of course Vice-President. 

For the next four years we behold our hero at the summit of 
his power. As Vice-President, he was presiding officer of the Sen- 
ate, and never before, it is said, were the duties of that position 
performed with such grace, dignity, and impartiality ; indeed 
this impartiality, in a strictly partisan contest, in the Senate, laid 
him open to the censure of his party, and contributed not a little 
to his ultimate political downfall. 

This contest occurred during the session of 1801, over the 
repeal of a Judiciary bill, which had been rushed through at the 
close of the last Congress, and by which the Federal judges had 
been increased by twenty-three. These life judgeships Mr. ivvi- 



COL. AARON BURR. / 95 

ams, in the last hours of his official life, had, with most indecent 
haste, filled, and by this action so exasperated the Republicans, 
that they determined to abolish them ; hence this bill. 

At one stage of the debate upon it, the Senate was tied, apd it 
became the duty of the President to give the casting vote. His 
decision was against the Republicans, and elicited no little hostile 
criticism from the party organs. At a later period he gained the 
ill will of the Federalists from the same cause. Equally consci- 
entious and honorable was his course in the impeachment trial of 
the Federal Judge Chase, charged with grossly abusing the au- 
thority of the bench in certain political trials, and which occurred 
toward the close of the session of 1805. Commenting upon his 
course in this trial, Mr. Parton says, " The dignity, the grace, 
the fairness, the prompt, intelligent decision with which the Vice 
President presided over the august court, extorted praise even 
from his enemies." "He conducted the trial with the dignity 
and impartiality of an angel, but with the rigor of a devil," said 
an eye-witness. We shall find further evidence as we proceed, as 
to the scrupulous impartiality with which he performed the du- 
ties of this office. 

As Vice-President, Col. Burr, his friends, and the country, ex- 
pected that he would succeed Jefferson in the Presidency. In this 
manner Adams had succeeded Washington, and Jeiferson, Adams. 
That he did not was due to the politicians, and not to his 
own acts, nor because the people had lost confidence in him. 
The election of 1800 had shown his commanding position in na- 
tional politics, and served to combine against him three great 
factions of the Republican party, — the Virginian faction led by 
Thomas Jefferson, and the Clinton and Livingston families of 
New York. These united their forces to crush him as an inter- 
loper, and at the Republican Convention in 1804 he was quietly 
shelved ; his name not even being mentioned in connection with 
public affairs. 

Burr attributed this defeat to the politicians, and resolved to 
appeal to the people. Accordingly in the New York election of 
that year, he was announced as an independent candidate for Gov- 
ernor. The Republican party nominated Judge Lewis ; the Fed- 
eral party made no nominations. 

Hamilton threw the weight of his great influence in favor of 
the Republican candidate: so did Jefferson ; but despite these fear- 
ful odds. Burr polled a vote of 38,000, against his adversary's 



96 FAIRFl^D BRANCH. 



35,000 ; but he was beaten. This was his last appearance in poli- 
tics, one more tilt and he quitted the political field forever. 

This event was his taking formal leave of the Senate, wliich 
occurred March 2, 1804. It is described as one of the most inter- 
esting and affecting ever witnessed. The Senate had not then 
opened its doors to the public, and our only account of the scene 
is that derived from a report in the Washington Federalist, ''ob- 
tained from the relation of several Senators as well Federal as Re- 
publican." The report opens with a summary of the speech, which 
was. it says, "the most sublime, dignified and impressive ever ut- 
tered." Its concluding sentiments only we have room to present : 

" But I now challenge your attention to considerations more 
momentous than any which regard merely your personal honor and 
character — the preservation of law, of liberty, and the constitu- 
tion. This House, I need not remind you, is a sanctuary ; a cita- 
del of law, of order, and of liberty ; and it is here — it is here, in 
this exalted refuge — here, if anywhere, will resistance be made to 
the storms of political frenzy, and the silent arts of corruption ; 
and if the constitution be destined ever to perish by the sacrile- 
gious hands of the demagogue, or the usurper, which God avert, 
its expiring agonies will be witnessed on this floor. I must now bid 
you farewell. It is probably a final separation, a dissolution, per- 
haps forever, of those associations, which I hope have been mutu- 
ally satisfactory. I would console myself, and you, however, with 
the reflection, that though we be separated, we shall still be en- 
gaged in the common cause of disseminating principles of freedom 
and social order. I shall tilways regard the proceedings of this 
body with interest and solicitude. I shall feel for its honor and for 
the national honor so intimately connected with it, and now take 
my leave of you with expressions of personal respect, and with 
prayers and good wishes." 

" At the conclusion of this speech," proceeds the report, "the 
whole Senate were in tears, and so unmanned that it was half an 
hour before they could recover themselves sufficiently to come to 
order and choose a Vice President jt?ro tern. 

" At the President's on Monday, two of the Senators were relat- 
ing these circumstances to a circle which had collected round 
them. One said he wished that the tradition might be preserved, 
as one of the most extraordinary events he had ever witnessed. 
Another Senator, being asked, on the day following that on which 
Mr. Burr took his leave, how long he was speaking, after a mo- 



COL. AARON BURR. 97 

ment's pause, said he could form no idea : it might have been an 
hour and it might have been but a moment ; when he came to his 
senses, he seemed to have awakened as from a kind of trance. As 
soon as the Senate could compose themselves sufficiently to appoint 
a President j9ro tem., they came to the following resolution. 

Eesolved, unanimously, That the thanks of the Senate be pre- 
sented to Aaron Burr, in testimony of the impartiality, dignity, 
and ability with which he has presided over their deliberations, 
and of their entire approbation of his conduct in the discharge of 
the arduous and important duties assigned him as President of the 
Senate. 

Thus passed this " well graced actor " from the political scene. 
He was a free man once more. What will he do next ? What 
new project will his busy brain and hand carve out ? were questions 
which every tongue in the country was now anxiously asking. 

But before passing to the later events of his career, we must 
pause to notice an event which had occurred a few months before, 
and which exerted a powerful influence on his subsequent fortunes. 
This event was the duel with Hamilton. 

Public opinion, the judgment of apparejit facts, is sometimes 
correct, often unjust, but none the less necessary. Whether or not 
the public opinion which held Burr so strictly accountable for the 
death of Hamilton was just or unjust, a careful consideration of 
the facts anterior to, as well as those connected with the duel, in 
the calm unbiased spirit that time has made possible, will do much 
to determine. 

It would not be strange if we should find, that, in his case, the 
popular judgment was both harsh and unjust, that he was as 
averse to the duel as Hamilton himself, that he used every (except 
dishonorable) means to avoid it, and that he only fought when 
absolutely forced to it, by the course of his rival and the cruel 
dictum of society ; and we may further agree and conclude, that 
he was the real victim of that tragedy, and not the brilliant genius 
who fell beneath his fire. 

But for the facts. And first as to the provocation. Without 
pausing to notice the unsoldierly conduct of Hamilton toward 
Burr, while both were in the army, we will pass at once to the pe- 
riod when they came prominently into view as candidates for the 
highest honors of the State. 

In the presidential canvass of 1792, Hamilton's almost insane 
7 



98 FAIRFIE^ BRANCH. 

jealousy led him to write thus of the man against whose fair fame 
hardly a breath of suspicion had been raised : '' I fear the other 
gentleman (Burr) is unprincipled both as a public and private man. 
. . . In fact I take it he is for or against anything, as it 
suits his interest or ambition. He is determined, as I conceive, to 
make his way to the head of the popular party and to climb per fas 
aut nefas to the highest honors of the State, and as much higher as 
circumstances may permit. Embarrassed, as I understand, in his 
circumstances, with an extravagant family, bold, enterprising and 
intriguing, I am mistaken if it be not his object to play the game 
of conspiracy, and 1 feel it to be a religious duty to oppose his ca- 
reer.'^ Sept. 26, he wrote again to ail^ther friend, Rufus King : 
" Mr. Burr's integrity as an individual, is not unimpeached, and 
as a public man, he is one of the worst sort. . . . in a word, 
if toe have an embryo Cmsar in the United States, it is Burr."" 
These words were not the confidential utterances of one friend to 
another, they were written /or effect, for in a few days King writes 
back, that " Care has been taken to put our friends at the east- 
ward on their guard." 

In 1794, Col. Burr was nominated by his party as Minister to 
France, but Washington refused to ratify the nomination. *' It 
was," he said, "the rule of his public life, to nominate no one for 
public oflBce of whose integrity he was not insured." But when 
had Burr's integrity been questioned, except by political rivals ? or 
when had he ever betrayed a trust, public or private ? The in- 
stance cannot be found, and Washington's distrust at this time, 
may readily be traced to the potent influence of Hamilton, then 
the confidential man of his administration. 

Again in 1798, when French insolence had provoked the young 
republic to warlike measures, and an army had been voted, and 
new general oflBcers appointed, it was Hamilton again that bhghted 
Burr's honest military ambitions. Sturdy John Adams gives the 
details in a letter written in 1815, and published in the tenth vol- 
ume of his works. "I have never known," he writes, "the pre- 
judice in favor of birth, parentage and descent, more conspicuous 
than in the instance of Col. Burr. That gentleman was connected 
by blood with many respectable families in New England. . 
He had served in the army, and came out of it with the character 
of a knight without fear, and an able officer. He had afterward 
studied and practiced law with application and success. Buoyed 
up on those religious partialities, and this military and juridical 



COL. AARON BURR. 99 

reputation, it is no wonder that Governor Clinton and Chancellor 
Livingston should take notice of him. They made him Attorney 
General, and the legislature sent him to Congress, where, I believe, 
he served six years. At the next election, he was, however, left 
out, and being at that time somewhat embarrassed in circumstan- 
ces, and reluctant to return to the bar, he would have rejoiced in 
an appointment in the army. 

"In this situation I proposed to "Washington, and through him 
to the triumvirate* to nominate Col. Burr for a brigadier-general. 
Washington's answer to me was, ' By all that 1 have known and 
heard. Col. Burr is a brave and able officer ; but the question is 
whether he has not equal talents at intrigue.' How shall I de- 
scribe to you my sensations and reflections at that moment. He 
had compelled me to promote over the heads of Lincoln. Clinton, 
Gates, Knox, and others, and even over Pinckney, one of his own 
triumvirates (Hamilton) the most restless, impatient, artful, inde- 
fatigable, and unprincipled intriguer in the United States, if not 
in the world, to be second in command under himself, and now 
dreaded an intriguer in a poor brigadier. He did however pro- 
pose it, at least to Hamilton. But I was not permitted to nomi- 
nate Burr. If I had been, what would have been the consequences ? 
Shall I say that Hamilton would have been now alive, and Hamil- 
ton and Burr now at the head of our affairs. What then ? If I 
had nominated Burr without the consent of the triumvirate, a 
negative in the Senate was certain." This letter is interesting as 
giving Adams' estimate of the two men ; it also shows Hamilton's 
marvelous facility for inoculating every one he met with his own 
disease of Burrophobia. 

In 1800, when there was a possibility of Burr becoming Presi- 
dent, Hamilton renewed more openly and bitterly his attacks. 
Dec. 17, 1800, he wrote a letter to Mr. Wolcott of Connecticut, 
in which he says, " Let it not be imagined that Mr. Burr can be won 
to Federal views ; it is a vain hope ... to accomplish his end, he 
must lean upon unprincipled men, and will continue to adhere to 
the myrmidons who have hitherto surrounded him. To these he 
will no doubt add able rogues of the Federal party but he will em- 
ploy the rogues of all parties to overrule the good men of all par- 
ties, and to prosecute projects which wise men of every descrip- 
tion will disapprove. These things are to be inferred with moral 

* WasMiigton, Hamilton, and Pinckney. 



100 FAIRFIE^ BRANCH. 

certainty from the character of the man. Every step in his career 
proves that he has formed himself upon the model of Catiline, 
and that he is too cold-blooded and too determined a conspirator 
ever to change his plan. Alas, when will men consult their rea- 
son rather than their passion ? Whatever they may imagine, the 
desire of mortifying the adverse party, must be the chief spring 
of the disposition to prefer Mr. Burr . . . Adieu to the 
Federal Troy, if they once introduce this Grecian horse into their 
citadel. " 

The August before, he had written to Senator Bayard of Dela- 
ware : •"There seems to be too much probability that Jefferson 
or Burr will be President. The latter is intriguing with all his 
might in New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont. He counts 
positively on the universal support of the anti-Federalists, and 
that by some adventitious aid from other quarters he will over- 
top his friend Jefferson. Admitting the first point, the conclusion 
may be realized, and, if it is so, Burr will certainly attempt to re- 
form the Government a la Buona'parte. He is as unprincipled and 
dangerous a man as any country can boast — as true a Catiline as 
ever met in midnight conclave.^'' 

These letters read like the ravings of a monomaniac ; thev are 
but samples of many, sown broadcast over the country for the lole 
purpose, as we must conclude, of blighting the prospects and repu- 
tation of Aaron Burr. With his tongue Hamilton was even more 
busy and venomous. What its effect was on the community — 
coming from so eminent a source — may be imagined. All this 
time the victim was ignorant and even unsuspicious of his rival's 
conduct ; the two men were apparently on terms of friendship ; 
they met in professional consultations, and dined at one another's 
tables. It was in 1802, I believe, that Col. Burr first heard of 
Hamilton's manner of conducting political campaigns, and he at 
once sought a personal interview and demanded an explanation. 
This Hamilton gave, and admitted that in the heat of a political 
canvass he had spoken hastily of Col. Burr, and in terms not usual 
with gentlemen, and promised to be more careful in future. But 
in the succeeding campaign of 1804, partisan rivalry was most 
intense, and Hamilton's unguarded expressions more violent and 
bitter than ever before ; so much so that Cheetham, editor of the 
American Citizen^ the organ of the Clintonian Republicans, paraded 
in the columns of his newspaper the query. Is the Vice-President 
sunk so low as to submit to be insulted by General Hamilton ? 



COL. AARON BURR. 101 

while at the same time the thousand gossipy tongues of society 
were taking up and repeating the same question. 

Eeports of Hamilton's conduct were brought to Burr at the 
close of the campaign by certain renegade Federalists driven from 
the ranks by their chiefs arrogance ; but he seems to have taken 
no action in the matter, and awaited further developments. At 
length his attention was called to a letter, — written by Dr. Charles 
D. Cooper, of New York, and published in the newspapers dur- 
ing the campaign — which contained, among others, the following 
sentences : 

" Gen. Hamilton and Judge Kent have declared in substance, 
that they looked upon Mr. Burr to be a dangerous man, and one 
who ought hot to be trusted with the reins of government," and 
"I could detail to you a still more despicable opinion, which Gen. 
Hamilton has expressed of Mr. Burr." Col. Burr quietly marked 
the obnoxious passages, and sent them by the hafid of his friend, 
William P. Van Ness, to Gen. Hamilton, with a note which con- 
cluded as follows : 

'•'You must perceive, sir, the necessity of a prompt and un- 
qualified acknowledgment or denial of the use of any expres- 
sions which would warrant the assertions of Mr. Cooper." The 
correspondence which followed is too voluminous for insertion 
here. In it Burr maintained the position taken in his first letter. 
Hamilton denied in part, equivocated, hedged, but absolutely re- 
fused to make the unqualified acknowledgment and denial asked 
for by Col. Burr. Such a course would have reinstated his rival 
in public confidence, and destroyed the work of years. Society too 
might have considered it an apology from necessity rather than 
principle. Burr, on his part, all the lion in him roused by Ham- 
ilton's repeated and treacherous attacks, receded not a whit from 
his original demand. In one of his letters on the subject he most 
admirably defined his position : 

" Political opposition," said he, " can never absolve gentlemen 
from the necessity of a rigid adherence to the laws of honor, and 
the rules of decorum. I neither claim such privilege, nor indulge 
it in others. The common sense of mankind affixes to the epithet 
adopted by Dr. Cooper the idea of dishonor. It has been publicly 
applied to me, under the sanction of your name. The question is 
not whether he has understood the meaning of the word, or has 
used it according to syntax and with grammatical accuracy, but 
whether you have authorized this application, either directly, or 



102 FAIRFIELD^RANCH. 

by uttering expressions or opinions derogatory to my honor.*' And 
again in liis last paper drawn up for the guidance of his second he 
enlarges upon this point. 

" Aaron Burr, far from conceiving that rivalship authorizes 
a latitude not otherwise justifiable, always feels great delicacy in 
such cases, and would think it meanness to speak of a rival, but 
in terms of respect ; to do justice to his merits, to be silent of his 
foibles. Such has invariably been his conduct toward Jay, 
Adams, and Hamilton, the only three who can be supposed to 
have stood in that relation to him. 

"That he has too much reason to believe that in regard to Mr. 
Hamilton there has been no such reciprocity. For several years 
his n%me has been lent to the support of base slanders. He has 
never had the generosity, the magnanimity, or the candor to con- 
tradict or disavow. Burr forbears to particularize, as it could only 
tend to produce new irritations, but having made great sacrifices 
for the sake of harmony, having exercised forbearance until it ap- 
proached humiliation, he has seen no effect produced by such con- 
duct, but a repetition of injury. 

'' He is obliged to conclude that there is on the part of Mr. Ham- 
ilton, a settled and implacable malevolence ; that he will never 
cease in his conduct toward Mr. Burr, to violate those courtesies 
of life, and that hence he has no alternative but to announce 
these things to the world, which consistently with Mr. Burr's ideas 
of propriety, can be done in no way but that which he has adopted. 
,He is incapable of revenge, still less is he capable of imitating 
the conduct of Mr. Hamilton by committing secret depreda- 
tion on his fame and character. But these things must have 
an end." 

These are hardly the words of a vindictive, blood-thirsty villain, 
and indeed they are not, for a more amiable, generous, and genial 
man than Col. Burr never lived, but he could and would protect 
himself when wronged beyond endurance. The paper last quoted 
was Burr's ultimatum, and Hamilton declaring its terms inadmis- 
sible, both parties prepared to fight, and never perhaps since the 
institution of the code was a meeting so inevitable as between these 
two. Both were soldiers, devotees of honor and men of society. 
Both had recognized the code by their presence, either as princi- 
pals or seconds, at several affairs of honor, and both were well 
aware that their position in politics and society depended on their 
not showing the white feather at this particular crisis. If either 



COL. AARON BURR. 103 

of the principals were the more culpable,, it was Hamilton, for he 
was the aggressor, and a few words from him might have prevented 
the meeting. But thoughtful men will find the real culprit in the 
barbarous blood-thirsty public opinion of the day, that made such 
Golgothas as that at Weehawken both necessary and honorable. 
The challenge was given and accepted. With the result of that 
meeting the world is acquainted. Burr escaped unharmed, the 
ball from his adversary's weapon, cutting the twigs near his head. 
Hamilton received a mortal wound, from which he died after 
thirty-one hours of intense suffering.* 

The popular clamor that then arose against Burr, unjust and 
indecent as it was, made a temporary retirement from New York 
necessary, and early in July he set out on a southern tour, visiting 
his daughter, Theodosia, at her home at the " Oaks," and spending 
several weeks with old political friends in South Carolina and 
other southern States ; from this tour he returned at the sitting of 
Congress, in the fall of 1804, to resume his duties as President of 
the Senate, as before related. 

In the spring of 1805, Col. Burr set out on a six months' tour 
through the western and southern States. On his return, he com- 
menced preparations for the execution of one of the most brilliant 
and stupendous plans of empire ever conceived. What that plan 
was, we, in the light of later developments, are enabled definitely 
to determine. 

In a few words, he proposed to wrest Mexico — ignorant, op- 
pressed and degraded — from the rule of the hated Spaniard, and 
to rear there an empire of progress and civilization, with himself 
at its head. This plan was perfectly feasible. War with Spain 
seemed inevitable. The bent towards southwestern acquisition in 
this country was large. The Mexican people were ripe for revolt, 
and at the first unfurling of his standard on the Mexican frontier, 
Burr might safely have counted on enrolling a band of gallant ad- 
venturers drawn from every quarter of the land. With this army 
he proposed to invade the country, and after a short and brilliant 
campaign, Mexico would have been his. Then what? 

Pen can scarcely portray the unrivalled future which would 
have been Mexico's, had Burr been '*' let alone " to realize his 

* The writer, in what has been said, has no desire to belittle the talents or services of 
Alexander Hamilton, but since, in the effort to make him a demi-god, it was found neces- 
eary to paint Aaron Burr in the lurid colors of the pit, both jastice and truth demand that 
the above facts should be stated. 



104 FAIRFIELD BRANCH. 

splendid dreams of conquest, A man of rare energy and of great 
executive force, he would have formed there a strong and stable 
government, superior to faction, and which might have solved the 
great problem of how to maintain at once, a strong, and yet popular 
government — a problem which we have been unable to solve. 

Liberal in sentiment, he would have made education universal ; 
the arts and sciences would have been encouraged us never before ; 
religion he would have left untrammelled and uncontrolled ; the 
revenues of tlie mines would have been spent in the construction 
of public works and for the glory of the State ; canals and rail- 
roads, piercing the mountains, would have joined sea to sea, and 
swift steamers sailing east and west, have poured into her lap the 
products of all nations. Her unequalled history, too, would have 
been written; the world's scholars penetrating her secret cloisters, 
would have unearthed the wealth of manuscript there hidden, and 
from the temples of Usmal, Palenque, and the thousand buried 
cities of plain and forest, we might have gleaned the history of 
that marvelous race, who, from the ruins of Toltecart, constructed 
an empire of civilization which was vigorous with age when our 
oldest political systems were in the weakness of infancy. 

These and many other glowing visions were, no doubt, present 
in the brain of this remarkable man at this stage of his career ; 
how far legitimate were the methods by which he hoped to realize 
them, let the casuist determine. He has been called a filibuster 
and an adventurer ; but then there was never a ranker set of fili- 
busters than those brought to these shores by the Mayflower, and 
them we revere, and rightly, too, as most perfect models of cor- 
rectness ; in fact, the whole history of the race is little more than 
a record of the filibustering of the strong against the weak. 

But to return to our subject. His plan was predicated largely 
on the fact of a war with Spain. Jefferson's prudence averted 
that war, and Burr turned his energies toward advancing a second- 
ary scheme which he had formed, should the first prove impracti- 
cable. This was the establishment of a colony on the Washita 
River near Texas, to be used as a base of operations in future at- 
tempts upon Mexico. General Wilkinson, then Governor of the 
new territory of Louisiana, Daniel Clark, a wealthy New Orleans 
merchant, Andrew Jackson, Governor Alston, General Adair of 
Kentucky, Colonel Dupeister, and hundreds of other prominent 
persons were cognizant of this scheme, and interested in it. As a 
preliminary step 50,000 acres of land on the Washita River, known 



COL. AARON BURR. 105 

as the " Bastrop Lands," were bought by Col. Burr's agents, and 
preparations for colonizing it were urged forward. Provisions were 
bought, recruits enlisted, and boats wherewith to descend the Mis- 
sissippi, contracted for. The rendezvous was at Blennerhasset's 
Island, — an historic spot, and one demanding more than a passing 
mention. 

No locality in the land is better known, and not alone in fo- 
rensic contests have its velvet lawns and quiet glades, its gardens 
and fountains, and shrubberies "which Shenstone might have en- 
vied," been held up to the gaze of an admiring and pitying public. 
The owner of this " earthly paradise," too, has received his full 
share of adulation ; fifty years ago no subject was more fascinating 
to the average writer, male or female, than Heman Blennerhas- 
set and his alleged wrongs, and no tragedy of that day was thought 
complete which did not present this unfortunate man as the Ami- 
able Victim, and Aaron Burr as the Heavy Villain of its dramatis 
person(B. 

In point of fact, the story of Burr's connection with Blenner- 
hasset is a very prosaic one. They first met in 1805, when Burr 
was on his western tour. He was journeying down the Ohio with 
a friend, in a row boat, and passing the island, landed from mo- 
tives of curiosity, having heard that it was the home of an eccen- 
tric foreigner. He was kindly received, pressed to stay to tea, re- 
mained, spent the evening with his entertainers, and resumed his 
voyage late at night. The two did not meet again until Col. Burr 
came west on his scheme for colonizing the Washita Lands. 

Such is a plain statement of the facts concerning their first 
meeting ; nor did Blennerhasset need any persuasion to enter 
heartily into Burr's plans of conquest. An idle, shiftless, roman- 
tic Irishman, he had spent a moderate fortune in improving his 
island, and now nearly bankrupt, embraced eagerly any plan that 
promised to repair his shattered fortunes, without much risk of 
exertion on his part. His "island," the paradise of the historical 
romancers, was a narrow strip of land in the Ohio Kiver, fourteen 
miles below Marietta, three or four miles in length and compris- 
ing about 270 acres of land. 

It was neither picturesque nor romantic, certainly not an Eden. 
Here it was, that in the summer of 1806, preparations were busily 
made for colonizing the tract on the Washita. On the 4th of 
August, these were so far advanced that Col. Burr with his ac- 
complished daughter Theodosia, left the island for the Cumber- 



106 FAIRFIELD ^^NCH. 

land River, where another detachment was rendezvoused, leaving 
Blennerhasset to complete the preparations on his island, and 
then join his chief late in the fall, at the mouth of the Cumber- 
land, where the united force would proceed down the Mississippi 
on its enterjirise. But before these plans could be carried out, 
Burr was surprised to learn, from the President himself, that his 
colonization scheme was treasonable. 

On tlie 25th of November, 1806, Jefferson received from Gen. 
Wilkinson (Burr's ancient friend and ally, and then commanding 
the department of Louisiana,) a cipher letter, purporting to be from 
Burr to him (Wilkinson,) proposing that he should use the army 
under his command to provoke a war with Spain, and also hinting 
at the erection of a great Southern empire. This letter, grossly ex- 
aggerated and altered as it was, was accompanied by such repre- 
sentations from Wilkinson as to raise in the mind of the President 
the direst visions of treasons and stratagems ; his action on receipt 
of it was that of a man bereft of sober judgment, for nothing could 
be more absurd than to suppose that so shrewd and politic a man 
as Aaron Burr, would entertain, for a moment, the project of se- 
ducing from its allegiance the great West, then the strongliold of 
republicanism and devotedly attached to the administration. To 
the President and his Cabinet, however, it was evident that a heavy 
conspiracy was already on foot in the West ; and on the 27th of 
November, the former issued a proclamation, declaring that unlaw- 
ful enterprises were under way in the Western States, and warning 
all persons to withdraw from the same, under penalty of incurring 
prosecution "with all the rigors of the law." 

We who have been made so familiar with treason that its as- 
pect is no longer frightful, can hardly realize the ominous and 
hateful sound of the word in 1800, nor the excitement and fear 
which convulsed the country on the publication of the President's 
ridiculous proclamation. Latent patriotism effervesced, and spent 
its force, from lack of other vent, in denunciation of tlie supposed 
traitors. The President sent a special message to Congress de- 
nouncing Burr as a traitor, and asking for an act to suspend the 
writ of habeas corpus, which was granted by the Senate, but 
rejected by the House. Military companies paraded daily, and 
crowded their offers of assistance upon the General Government ; 
forts and arsenals were put in warlike trim, the navy was strength- 
ened, and the newspapers and the administration vied with each 
other in circulating the wildest rumors and most palpable untruths; 



107 
COL. AAEON BURR. 

in short popular hatred and mistrust was brought to the highest 
pitch and there held suspended-a sort of moral avalanche ready 
to be'hurled upon the luckless wight who should be even suspected 
o the odious cHme of treason. MeanwhUe Col. Bux.. a peaceful 
citizen of the United States, was pursuing his peaceful and laud- 
Twe^ihemes on thebanksof the Ohio. The ^-^ -^ ^, P-^^Th^ 
tion reached Blennerhasset's Island early m Decembei On the 
4th Blennerhasset learned that a detachment of nnhtia from Wood 
County, Va., would make a descent on the island the next day, and 
capture himself, the'boats, stores, and all the property of .the ex- 
ped on ; and that night, secretly, with four boats and thiry men 
Tastilv collected, he left the island and fled -th^- ^^-^ ^P-f^ 
down the river. At the mouth of the Cumberland, he met his 
:Zt and the combined flotilla proceeded on down the Mississippi 
Had a cunning limner like our Nast been present, he might have 
found material fo^r a dozen spirited cartoons m this first insui^e - 
tionarv expedition against the government. There were the flat- 
boTts thirteen in number, borne by the sluggish current, and 
guided by sixty red-shirted backwoodsmen. Prominent objects on 
?heii- decks were the chicken-coops and pig-barracks wih their 
noisy occupants. Sacks of flour, barrels of bacon, ^^^^^ ^iln-dr ed 
corn! hams, and other munitions of war, with siich deadly instru- 
men s as ploughs, spades, hoes, pots, skillets and the hke, ormed the 
Lk of the clrgo. On lines stretched across the deck hung seed- 
ears and slices of pumpkin drying in the sun ; children played un- 
terrified about this grim array ; and near at hand, their mothers 
sewed and gossipped ; the linnet and canary sang m their gilded 
cages, and the antics of a pet monkey joined to the strams of a 
superannuated banjo, relieved the tedium of the vopge. 

In this manner, day after day the grim armament floated down 
the river, carrying terror and dismay wherever it penetrated. At 
Bayou Pierre, thirty miles above Natchez, a crisis occurred The 
Natchez militia, 275 strong, hearing of Burr's arrival, marched out 
to meet him. Drawing near his encampment, they were reinforced 
by a battalion of cavalry, and halting, sent a peremptory summons 
to Burr to surrender. The latter talked freely with the messen- 
gers, declared his mnocence of any treasonable designs, and pro- 
tsted against such high-handed and arbitrary proceedmgs. But 
the officers persisted in their demand, and at last Burr agreed to 
meet Gov. Mead next day, and surrender his entire force, with the 
stipulation, however, that he should not be handed over for trial 



108 FAIRFIELI^RANCH. 

to the military authorities. He was then conveyed to the neigh- 
boring town of Washington, a grand jury was hastily impaneled, 
and he was brought before them for trial — but on what charges ? 
The grand jury struggled with this question for days, but were 
unable to answer it ; and a higher tribunal a few weeks later fared 
no better ; but at length, after numberless motions and discussions 
in which Burr completely captivated the populace with his displays 
of learning and eloquence, the grand jury returned that "'on a 
due investigation of the evidence brought before them, Aaron Burr 
has not been guilty of any crime or misdemeanor against the laws 
of the United States." They also went further and presented as 
a grievance, ''the late military expedition, unnecessarily, as they 
conceive, fitted out against the person and property of Aaron 
Burr." They also presented as a grievance, destructive of personal 
liberty, the late military arrests made without warrant, and as 
they conceive, without other lawful authority. Thus ended the 
first attempt to indict Col. Burr for the crime of treason. 

He was a free man again, but not secure, for orders had already 
been issued by the President, " to take the body of Aaron Burr 
alive or dead, and to confiscate his property ." Finding himself in 
the power of a military despotism, he determined to escape, and 
crossing the Mississippi, made the best of his way southward, to- 
ward the port of Pensacola where lay a British man-of-war, on 
which he hoped to find refuge. 

Some days after these events, two travellers miglit have been 
seen descending a hill near the residence of Col. Hinson, in the 
town of Wakefield, Alabama ; these persons were Col. Burr and 
his guide. At the foot of the hill they were intercepted by a file 
of dragoons led by Capt. Gaines, commanding Fort Stoddard, near 
by. Capt. Gaines rode forward. " I presume, sir," said he, '' that 
I have the honor of addressing Col. Burr." "I am a traveller in 
the country," replied the person addressed, "and do not recognize 
your right to ask such a question." " I arrest you at the instance 
of the Federal Government," was Gaines' rejoinder. *•' By what 
authority do you arrest travellers on the highway, bound on their 
own private business," asked the stranger. '''I am an officer of 
the army ; I hold in my hands the proclamation of the President 
and Governor directing your arrest," was the reply. " You are a 
young man, and may not be aware of the responsibilities which re- 
sult from arresting travellers," said the person addressed. " I am 
aware of the responsibility, but I know my duty," said Gaines. 



COL. AARON BURR. 109 

It was all in vain that Col. Burr protested his innocence, de- 
clared that all this arose from the malevolence of his enemies, and 
pointed out the liabilities the captain would incur by arresting 
him. " My mind is made up," said Gaines, and the former Vice 
President was arrested and duly lodged within the walls of a mili- 
tary fortress. 

For two weeks Col. Burr remained at Fort Stoddard : then in 
charge of a file of soldiers under command of one Perkins, he 
was sent overland to the city of Richmond, where the Government 
had decided his trial should take place. One incident only of this 
diflBcult and perilous journey shall be narrated. After the party 
had passed the wilderness, and had come to the outposts of civil- 
ization, the utmost care was taken to prevent the prisoner from 
communicating his situation to his friends, and through them ap- 
pealing to the civil authorities for relief. Perkins had carefully 
avoided the large towns in his way, and while passing through 
Chester, in South Carolina, they chanced to ride near a small 
tavern, in front of which quite a group of citizens had collected. 
This was Burr's opportunity and he embraced it. 

Suddenly throwing himself from his horse, he exclaimed with 
a loud voice, "I am Aaron Burr, under military arrest, and claim 
the protection of the civil authorities." In a moment Perkins 
sprang to the ground and, presenting his pistols to Burr's head, 
sternly ordered him to remount. "I will not," Burr shouted de- 
fiantly, whereupon Perkins, a perfect specimen of a backwoods- 
man, seized him around the waist, and threw him forcibly into his 
saddle, a soldier then seized his bridle, and the whole cavalcade 
swept off into the foi*est before the astonished people had time to 
comprehend the situation. 

It is said that Burr, thus a second time kidnapped, was almost 
wild with excitement : "The indifference of the people," says Mr. 
Parton, ''the indignity he had suffered, the thought of his inno- 
cence of any violation of the law, the triumph his enemies were 
about to have over him, all rushed into his mind, and for the 
moment unmanned him. For the first and only time, amid all his 
unexampled misfortunes, his iron fortitude forsook him, and he 
burst into tears." 

This, however, lasted but a moment, then the prisoner's usual 
imperturbability of manner returned, and the journey was finished 
as it had been conducted, without a murmur or word of complaint 
from him. The party arrived in Richmond on Thursday, the 26th 



110 FAIRFIE^ BRANCH. 

of March, 1807. On Monday the prisoner was brought before Chief 
Justice Marshall for examination previous to commitment, and 
after three days of argument was committed for misdemeanor only, 
the Judire leaving the charge of treason to be considered by the 
Grand Jury. 

He was arraigned before the Grand Jury May 22, 1807. Never 
before or since, perhaps, has the country witnessed a trial of such 
magnitude, conducted by such an array of talent, and the progress 
of which was followed with such intense interest by the whole 
country. All the magnates of Virginia. Gen. Jackson, John Ran- 
dolph, Senator Giles, distinguished public men, fair ladies with- 
out number, crowded the court-room. The sympathies of the 
people of Eichmond, and of the ladies especially, were with the 
prisoner, and many expressions of sympathy and regard were ten- 
dered him during his forced stay in the city. Two judges con- 
ducted the trial, John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States, 
and Cyrus Griffin, Judge of the District Court of Virginia. Burr 
was fortunate in his cliief judge. ''The soul of dignity and 
honor,'' says a contemporary, '• prudent, courageous, alive to cen- 
sure, but immovably resolute to do right, John Marshall was the 
Washington of the bench, an honest man and just judge." It was 
to his firmness and judicial impartiality no doubt that Bnrr owed 
his life, or at least, liberty. The lawyers employed were worthy of 
the occasion. Engaged in the prosecution, were George Hay, Mon- 
roe's son-in-law, William Wirt the renowned orator, and Alexander 
McRae, Lieut. Governor of Virginia. 

For the defence appeared Aaron Burr, the Launcelot of this 
legal tournament, Edmund Randolph. Washington's Attorney 
General and Secretary of State, Wickham, called the ablest lawyer 
at the Richmond bar, Luther Martin of Maryland, Jefferson's 
'* Federal bull-dog," and Benjamin Botts of Virginia. 

At the opening of the trial it was found that an impartial jury 
could not be obtained. Of the whole panel summoned, all admit- 
ted that they had formed an opinion adverse to the prisoner. " I 
prav the court to notice," remarked Burr, while the jurors were 
being challenged, '"'from the scene before us, how many attempts 
have been made to prejudice my cause." 

At length, late in the afternoon, a jury was obtained, not one 
of whom but had admitted his conviction of the prisoner's guilt. 
Of the trial, or rather trials that followed, it is impossible for us 
to speak in detail. A report of it was published in two large octavo 



COL. AARON BURR. Ill 

volumes, and may be found in any well-stocked law library. Mr. 
Davis and Mr. Parton also give able summaries. The trial was 
divided into two parts, one before the grand jury on a motion for 
a commitment of the prisoner on a charge of treason, the other 
was the trial for treason itself after a true bill had been found. 
Between the two was an interval of some six weeks. 

The trial was opened by Col. Burr, who addressed the court, 
as to the admissibility of certain evidence which he supposed 
would be offered. Hay replied, "hoping the court would grant 
no special indulgence to Col. Burr, who stood on the same foot- 
ing as any other man who had committed a crime." 

'• Would to God," was the retort of Burr, " that I did stand on 
the same footing with any other man. This is the first time I 
have been permitted to enjoy the rights of a citizen. Howhave I 
been brought hither ? " 

In the speech that followed, he made many other strong points, 
and eminently Burrian ; but the strongest, and that which most 
thoroughly demoralized the prosecution, was the stand taken in 
the very first stages of the trial, that before any evidence as to the 
prisoner's guilt could be admitted, the act of treason must first 
be proved, just as it would be manifestly absurd to indict a man 
for murder until the fact of the hilling was first established. 

In the course of the argument on this point, Mr. Botts de- 
fined in a masterly manner, the act of treason. '' First," said 
he, " it must be proved that there was an actual war ; a war of acts 
and not of intentions. Secondly, the prisoner must be proved 
to have committed an overt act in that war. Thirdly, the overt 
act must be proved to have been committed in the district where 
the trial takes place. Fourthly, the overt act must be proved by 
two witnesses," and this view of the crime of treason was sustained 
by the court. 

The prosecution could not conceal the dismay and confusion 
which this decision caused in their ranks. To prove the prison- 
er's guilt, they had relied chiefly on ex parte evidence, suspicious 
facts, the prisoner's acts, and his own unguarded words. Now 
they were forced to go back of all this, and before a syllable of 
evidence in regard to the prisoner or his acts could be admitted, 
must prove the fact that actual war had been levied against the 
United States. However, gallantly recovering from this contre 
temps, they at once set to work to establish the overt act. Wilkin- 
son was sent for from New Orleans, Gen. Eaton brought from 



112 falrfM^d branch. 

New Jersey, and the Morgans from Kentucky. Hardly a person 
that had written or spoken to Col. Burr during the past two years 
but was brought to the witness stand, in the effort to prove that 
war had actually been levied against the United States. Even post 
offices were broken open and rifled of his papers ; it was all in vain, 
however, no war was to be found, or as Col. Burr pithily expressed 
it in a speech to the court on the third day of the trial : 

•' Our President is a lawyer and a great one, too. He certainly 
ought to know what it is that constitutes a war. Six months ago 
he proclaimed that there was a civil war, and yet for six months 
have they been hunting for it. and still cannot find one spot where 
it existed. There was, to be sure, a most terrible war in the news- 
papers, but no where else. When I appeared before the grand 
jury in Kentucky, they had no charge to bring against me. When 
I appeared for a second time before a grand jury in the Mississippi 
territory, there was nothing to appear against me, and the Judge 
even told the United States Attorney, that if he did not send up 
the bill before the grand jury, he himself would proceed to name 
as many of the witnesses as he could, and bring it before the 
court. Still there was no proof of war. At length, however, the 
Spaniards invaded our territory, and yet there was no war. But, 
sir, if there was a war, certainly no man can pretend to say that 
the Government is able to find it out. The scene to which they 
have now hunted it, is only three hundred miles distant, and still 
there is no evidence to prove this war." 

At length, after thirty-three days of argument, the grand jury 
brought in an indictment against Aaron Burr for treason, and 
also an indictment for misdemeanor. Blennerhasset was also 
indicted for the same offences. 

The trial for treason began on the 3d of August ; the same 
judges and counsel were in attendance. Here the same difficulty 
was experienced in securing an impartial jury. Fourteen days 
were spent in the effort. Of the first venire of 48, but four were 
found unprejudiced, of a second venii'e of 48 summoned, all ad- 
mitted that they had formed opinions unfavorable to the prisoner. 
The defence even moved to quash the trial on the ground that an 
impartial jury could not be obtained. The matter was at length 
compromised by allowing the defence to choose eight from the 
venire last summoned, which, added to the four chosen from the 
first, made up the required number. 



COL. AARON BURR. 113 

The second trial was in many respects a repetition of the first. 
The witnesses chiefly relied on to prove the overt act, were Gen. 
Eaton, an old army officer, the Morgans, and Gen, Wilkinson. 

Eaton and the Morgans gave an exaggerated account of Burr's 
wild talk of severing the union — words that he certainly would 
never have uttered had he really entertained such designs. Wil- 
kinson produced the famous cipher letter, which had raised the 
tempest, but which proved nothing, except that the two men had 
had a prior agreement as to certain objects to be attained. It 
should be remarked here that Wilkinson hy his own confession 
was a perjurer as well as traitor. At the trial he swore that the 
letter produced was the otie received from Burr and unaltered, af- 
terward he admitted that he had made some slight alterations in 
it. Burr declared after the trial, that thirty of the fifty witnesses 
examined, had perjured themselves. On the 29th of August, the 
debate was concluded by Mr. Randolph. On the 30th, the judge 
delivered his opinion. On the 31st, the jury brought in their 
verdict — the most irregular and cowardly ever returned by an 
American jury. "We of the jury," so the verdict ran, ''say 
that Aaron Burr is not proved to be guilty under the indict- 
ment hi/ any evideiice submitted to us. We therefore find him not 
guilty." It was the Scotch verdict of 7iot proven, and was de- 
signed to fasten still more firmly in the minds of the people, their 
conviction of the prisoner's guilt. 

Scarcely was the reading of the verdict concluded, when Col. 
Burr was on his feet, and vehemently protested against such a 
verdict, and it was only after an animated debate, that he suc- 
ceeded in having it entered as simply " not guilty." 

There yet remained the trial for ' misdemeanor, and on this 
charge he was also acquitted. Col. Burr was now legally free ; 
but his position in the land for which he had done and suffered so 
much had become unendurable. The Government still breathed 
out threatenings against him and the belief of his guilt was firmly 
fixed in the minds of the people. It has been demonstrated that 
nothing but time and Almighty power can remove a popular 
prejudice. Burr was too wise to attempt it ; he did better, he left 
it behind him. Early in June 1808, threatened with a second 
arrest by the Government, he sailed in disguise under the name of 
Edwards, in the British mail-packet Clarissa bound from New 
York to Liverpool, The Clarissa left port on the 9th of June, and 
on the 14th of July she arrived at Liverpool. 



I 

114 FAIRFIEl^ BRANCH. 

Of Col. Burr's four years' wandering in the old world, we can- 
not speak with any degree of particularity. He remained in Eng- 
land nearly a year, or until April, 1809 ; then, induced by the rep- 
resentations of the American Minister, Lord Liverpool addressed 
him a polite note, which stated that the presence of Col. Burr in 
Great Britain was embarrassing to his majesty's government, and 
that it was the wish and expectation of the government that he 
should remove. Burr, who had been dined and f^ted by most of 
the literary and society magnates of London, had visited the tomb 
of Shakespeare and travelled about the kingdom as far as to Edin- 
burgh, was quite ready to make his majesty's mind easy by leaving 
the inhospitable isle ; and accordingly on the 24th of April, 1809, 
sailed for Gottenburg in Sweden, not deeming it safe at that time 
to visit France. He remained in Sweden five months, enjoying 
Swedish hospitality to the full, and received as a distinguished 
guest even by royalty itself. Late in October he sot out with two 
companions, Americans, for Paris. The party proceeded by easy 
stages to Elsinore, from Elsinore to Copenhagen, and from thence 
to Hamburg, on the confines of French territory. Here they 
waited for passports to the French capital. 

While detained at Hamburg he made a short excursion into 
Germany, visiting Hanover, Gottingen, Weimar, Frankfort, and 
other places. At Weimar he met Goethe, Wieland, the Baroness 
De Stein, and other eminent persons. Keturning to Mayence, 
where the passjjorts were to be sent, he waited a few weeks until 
they arrived, and then proceeded without further incident to Paris. 
In Paris Col. Burr lived fifteen months; the last ten months spent 
in trying to get away, for Jeiferson had now become a private citi- 
zen and the thought would obtrude itself that he might return in 
safety to his native land. 

But the representations of the American Minister had made 
him an object of suspicion to the French Government, and he was 
refused permission to leave the country. At length, however, in 
July, 1811. the government was induced to remove its surveillance, 
and wringing a reluctantly given passport from the American 
" charge des affaires," through an accidental acquaintance with 
some of that gentleman's doubtful transactions, he betook himself 
to Amsterdam, where lay the *' Vigilant," Capt. Combes, and about 
to sail for America. The captain, a gallant, generous son of the 
sea, gladly gave the ex- Vice President passage, and on the 1st of 
October, 1811, Aaron Burr bade adieu forever, and we may iraa- 



COL. AARON BURR. 115 

gine without regret, to the continent of Europe. But outside the 
harbor a crushing misfortune awaited him, for the Vigilant was set 
upon by a Britisli cruiser and carried into the English harbor of 
Yarmouth, and held as a prize, subject to the decision of the 
admiralty. Burr at once proceeded to London and there remained 
six months awaiting an opportunity to return to America. Few ves- 
sels were then returning, and the captains of those that were, were 
easily persuaded by the American consul to refuse him a passage. 
At length, however, he found a Captain Potter, of the ship Aurora, 
who agreed to land him in Boston for the sum of thirty pounds. 

Burr again paid his passage money, received his passports from 
the British Government, now all friendliness, and five weeks there- 
after was safe in Boston Harbor. A month later, in May, 1812, 
the second war with Great Britain was declared, and the Atlantic 
became a dangerous highway for American vessels. 

With the return of Col. Burr to his native country ends our 
brief resume of his public career. The story of the remaining 
twenty-five years of his life is a pitiful one, — a mere record of 
slights and scorns — a continued kicking of a man who was down, 
by the immaculate society of the day. 

Immediately on his return he opened a law-office in New York, 
and much of his former business returned to him., but he never 
regained his social or political status ; and he never sought to re- 
gain it. Conscious of the injustice done him, and retaining his 
pride of character to the last, he disdained to make explanations, 
and repaid scorn for scorn, and contempt with indifference. 
But to the few friends who remained faithful, he was the same 
brilliant, genial, fascinating man as of old, and these he was wont 
to entertain for hours, when off duty, with vivid descriptions of 
the men and things of a former generation, interspersed with bril- 
liant ancedotes, and profound observations on pending issues in 
politics and statesmanship. Nothing, it is said, could be more val- 
uable and interesting than these recollections, and it is to the in- 
calculable loss of American literature that they were not preserved 
in print. Burr did entertain such a project at one time, and 
would probably have carried it out, but for the loss of his most 
valuable papers in the same shipwreck that bereft him of his 
daughter, and rendered him dead to ambition or any worldly 
interest. 

Before passing to narrate the closing scenes of his life, a few 
notes as to the appearance, character, and habits of our distin- 



116 FAIRFIE^ BRANCH. 

guished subject will be thought necessary and interesting. A 
writer in the New York Leader thus describes him as he appeared 
in the later years of life : 

•' I knew him personally, from my boyhood, and saw him often 
in the quiet scenes of domestic life, in the house of a gentleman 
who was always his friend. His personal appearance was peculiar. 
Under the medium height, his figure was well proportioned, 
sinewy and elastic, appearing in every movement to be governed 
more by the mental than mere physical attributes. His head was not 
large, but as phrenologists say, well proportioned. His forehead 
was high, protruding, but narrow directly over the eyes, and wid- 
ening immediately back. The head was well, even classically, 
poised upon the shoulders ; his feet and hands were peculiarly 
small ; the nose rather large, with open, expanding nostrils ; and 
the ears so small as almost to be a deformity. But the feature 
which gave character and tone to all, and which made his presence 
felt, was the eye. Perfectly round, not large, deep hazel in color, 
it had an expression which no one who had seen it could ever for- 
get. No man could stand in presence of Col. Burr, with his eyes 
fixed on him, and not feel that they pierced his innermost thoughts. 
There was a power in his look — a magnetism, if I may be allowed 
the expression, — which few persons could resist. 

"The expression of his face when I knew him, it was first in 
1823, bore in repose a sad and melancholy air, yet the features were 
mobile, and when addressing ladies, uttering some pleasantry or 
"witticism, the smile around his mouth was literally beautiful, and 
his eyes would lose their piercing look, and become tender and 
gentle. His voice was not powerful, but round, full, and crisp, and 
though never loud, was tender or impressive as the case required. 
His elocution in conversation was perfect, always precisely suited 
to the occasion and the style of thought to which he was giving 
expression. His language was terse, almost epigrammatical, and 
he rarely indulged in illustration or metaphor ; his words were al- 
ways the most apt that could be used, and he had command of a 
vocabulary which would make Roguet of the Tesaurus envious. His 
manners were polished, his motions graceful and easy, yet he never 
for a moment lost his noble and dignified bearing. In mere phys- 
ical beauty, in elegance of face or figure, in brilliancy of the eye, 
I have seen many men superior to Col. Burr, but in a bearing and 
presence which you felt to be something beyond other men, with 
character in every motion and expression, in a life of over forty 



COL. AARON BURR. 117 

years, and after seeing all the great men of the country during that 
period, I have never seen his peer. He wore his hair — which till 
quite late in life, was long and thick, excepting on the front of the 
head, — massed up on the top held by a small shell comb, the whole 
head profusely powdered. . . His usual dress was a single blue- 
breasted coat, with standing collar, a buff vest, and dark pants ; 
in winter he wore a fur cap and buckskin mittens." 

In regard to the character of Col. Burr, the verdict of the hon- 
est and intelligent student of his career will be much more favor- 
able than is the popular judgment. Of him it may be said more 
truly than of any other, that circumstances made him bad, where- 
in he was bad, and that party rancor and sectarian bigotry painted 
the portrait which has come down to posterity ; in proof of the 
truth of these assertions I will present a paper which was read by 
Judge John Greenwood, of Brooklyn, before the Long Island His- 
torical Society, begging the reader to observe that the author's in- 
timate acquaintance with Col. Burr, his thorough integrity, and 
judicial training, render his judgment unassailable, whereas the 
idle and vicious tales from which the adverse judgment has been 
formed, are without parentage and cannot be substantiated by any 
proof that would be received in a court of law. The italics in the 
paper are our own. They mark the passages which treat — very 
delicately and yet very satisfactorily — of Col. Burr's relations with 
women, and make farther remark on the subject unnecessary, ex- 
cept to say that all with whom the writer has conversed, and who 
were from their position best calculated to judge, take substan- 
tially the same view of the case as that expressed by Judge Green- 
wood. The paper is given nearly entire : 

"As to Col. Burr I enjoyed peculiar advantages of knowledge, 
having been, for a period of about six years, namely, from about 
1814 to 1820, a clerk and student in his office, and in constant 
intercourse with him, and this at a period of my life when the 
strongest impressions were likely to be made upon me. The dark 
side of Col. Burr's character has been very often presented, and it 
is unnecessary that I should make another exhibition of it. It 
gives me pleasure to be able to bring into the light, features upon 
which it is more agreeable to dwell, and some of which, indeed, 
may be contemplated with advantage. Let me speak first of his 
temperance in eating and drinking. It would be natural to sup- 
pose that a man somewhat unrestricted, as it must be admitted he 
was, in one respect which may be regarded as in some degree cor- 



118 FAIRFIEL^BRANCH. 

relative, would not be very much restrained in the indulgences of 
the table. But the fact is otherwise. His diet was very light : a 
cup of coffee and a roll, with but seldom the addition of an egg, 
and never of meat or fish, constituted his breakfast. His dinner, 
in a majority of cases, consisted of roasted potatoes, seasoned with 
a little salt and butter, or perhaps of some thickened milk (called 
sometimes ' boymy clabber ') sweetened with sugar. A cup of black 
tea with a slice of bread and butter, was the last meal ; and these 
constituted as a general thing, his whole sustenance for twenty- 
four hours. The exception was when some friend was invited by 
him to dinner. He was very fond, when seated at table, of having 
his favorite cat near him, and it was a pleasant thing to see puss 
sit on the arm of his chair and keep him company. As to spiritu- 
ous liquors, I have no hesitation in saying from personal knowledge, 
that he never used them. His usual beverage was claret and water, 
sweetened with loaf sugar. His wine he bought by the cask, and 
had bottled at his residence. The result of his abstemious course 
of living was, that he enjoyed uniform good health, which was sel- 
dom, if ever, interrupted. 

"His industry was of the most remarkable character. Indeed 
it may with truth be said that he never was idle. He was always 
employed in some way, and what is more, required every one under 
him to be so. Sometimes in coming through the office, and ob- 
serving that I was not at work, as I might not have been for the 
moment, he would say, "Master John, can't you find something to 
do ? ' although it is safe to say that no clerk in an office was ever 
more constantly worked than I was. 

" He would rise at an early hour in the morning, devote himself 
to the business of the day — for he had a large general practice — 
and usually retired to rest not sooner than twelve, or half-past 
twelve at night. In this way he would accomplish a vast amount 
of work. His perseverance and indefatigability, too, were strik- 
ingly characteristic. No plan or purpose once formed was aban- 
doned, and no amount of labor could discourage him or cause 
him to desist. To begin a work was, with him, to finish it. How 
widely, in this respect, he differed from some professional men of 
his own and the present day, I need hardly. say. I could recur to 
some, greatly his juniors in years, who were and are his very op- 
posites in this respect. He was for having a thing done, too, as 
soon as it could be, and not, as some have supposed, for seeing 
how long it could be put off before it was begun. 



COL. AARON BURR. 119 

" But I must say a word of his manner in court. He seemed in 
the street and everywhere in public, to be strongly conscious that 
he was a mark of observation, not indeed in the sense in which 
Hamlet is spoken of, as ' the observed of all observers,' but as an 
object, to some of curiosity, to others of hostile or suspicious re- 
gard. Carrying this feeling into the court-room his manner was 
somewhat reserved, though never submissive, and he used no un- 
necessary words. He would present at once the main points of his 
case, and as his preparation was thorough, would usually be suc- 
cessful. But he was not eloquent. If he thought his dignity 
assailed in any manner, even inferentially, his rebuke was wither- 
ing in the cutting sarcasm of its few words, and the lightning 
glance of his terrible eyes, which few could withstand. I may 
say in this connection, that his self-possession, under the most 
trying circumstances, was wonderful, and that he probably never 
knew what it was to fear a human being, 

"If there was anything which Burr's proud spirit supremely 
despised, it was a mean, prying curiosity. He early inculcated on 
me the lesson, never to read even an opened letter addressed to 
another, which might be lying in my way, and never to look over 
another who was writing a letter. It was one of my duties to 
copy his letters, and 1 shall never forget the withering and indig- 
nant look which, on one occasion, he gave to a person in the 
oflSce who endeavored to see what I was copying. Neither would 
he tolerate any impertinent gazing or staring at him, as if to spy 
out his secret thoughts and reflections. 

" You will be glad to hear me say something of his very fascina- 
ting powers in conversation. It may seem strange, if not incredi- 
ble, that a man who had passed through such vicissitudes as he 
had, and who must have had such a crowd of early and pressing 
memories on his mind, should be able to preserve a uniform 
serenity and even cheerfulness, but such is the fact. 

" His manners were easy and his carriage graceful, and he had 
a winning smile in moments of pleasant intercourse, that seemed 
almost to charm you. He would laugh, too, sometimes, as if his 
heart was bubbling with joy, and its effect was irresistible. No- 
body could tell a story or an anecdote better than he could, and 
nobody enjoyed it better than he did himself. His maxim was 
suaviter in modo fortiter in re. Yet, where spirits and a deter- 
mined manner were required, probably no man ever showed them 
more effectively. Although comparatively small in person, and 



120 FAlRFlEL^iRANCH. 

light in frame, I have seen him rebuke, and put to silence, men 
of position in society greatly his superiors in physical strength, 
who were wanting in respect in their language toward him. 

*' Col. Burr was a social man, that is, he liked the company of a 
friend and would spend a half hour in conversation with him very 
agreeably. Occasionally one with Avhoui he had been on intimate 
terms, and who had shared his adventures, like Samuel Swart- 
wout, or William Hosack, would call and have a pleasant time. 
Dr. W. J. McNevin was also intimate with him. He was very 
fond of young company. Children were delighted with him. He 
not only took an interest in their sports, but conciliated them, and 
attached them to him by presents. The latter, I may observe, was 
also one of his modes of pleasing the more mature of the gentler 
sex. 

*'He was very fond of alluding to events in his military life. 
Indeed I think he cliiefly prided himself upon his military char- 
acter. His counsel was much sought by foreigners engaged in 
revolutionary enterprises, who happened to be in New York ; and 
during the period of the revolution in Caraccas, Generals Carrera 
and Eibas, who took part in it, and during its existence visited 
New York, were on very intimate terms with him. The former 
was a gentleman of great talent but of modest and retired bearing. 
"There ax"e some who suppose that Col. Burr had no virtues. 
This is a mistake. He was true in his friendships, and would go 
any length to serve a friend, and he had also the strongest affec- 
tions. 

" I shall never forget the incidents concerning the loss of his 
daughter Theodosia, then wife of Gov. Alston of South Carolina. 
Soon after Col. Burr's return from Europe to New York, he ar- 
ranged for her to come on and visit him, and she set out, as is 
known, from Georgetown in a small schooner, called the Patriot. 
Timothy Green, a retired lawyer in New York, a most worthy 
man, and an old friend of Col. Burr, went on by land to accom- 
pany her. The fact of the departure of the vessel, with his daugh- 
ter and Mr. Green on board, was communicated by letter from 
Gov. Alston to Col. Burr, and he looked forward with anticipa- 
tions of joy to the meeting which, after so many years of separa- 
tion, was to take place between himself and his dear child. A full 
time for the arrival of the vessel at New York elapsed, but she 
did not come. 

" As day after day passed and still nothing was seen or heard of 



COL. AARON BURR. 121 

the vessel or of his daughter, that face which had before shown no 
gloom or sadness, began to exhibit the signs of deep and deeper 
concern. Every means was resorted to to obtain information, but 
no tidings were ever heard of the vessel, or of her upon whom all 
the affection of his nature had been bestowed. ' Hope deferred,' 
did indeed in this case, make sick and nearly crush the heart. 

" His symbol, which he loved occasionally to stamp upon the 
seal of a letter, was a rock in the tempest-torn ocean, which nei- 
ther wind nor wave could move. But his firm and manly nature, 
which no danger or reverse, nor any of the previous circumstances 
of life had been able to shake, was near giving way. It was inter- 
esting though painful, to witness his struggle ; but he did rise su- 
perior to his grief and the light once more shone upon his counte- 
nance. But it was ever after a subdued light. 

'•' Something will be expected to be said by me, with regard to 
his duel with Gen, Hamilton. So much has been written on this 
subject already, that I can add nothing to the history of the trans- 
action. Every one will form an opinion for himself as to who was 
to blame in that unfortunate affair. I will say, however, that it was a 
matter to which Col, Burr, from delicacy, never referred. He was 
no boaster, and no calumniator, and certainly he would have no 
word of censure for his dead antagonist, I will relate, however, anan- 
ecdote told me by him, indicating the degree of hostility felt to- 
wards him by some after that transaction, and at the same time his 
own intrepidity, although to the latter he seemed not to attach 
the slightest importance, 

" He was travelling in the interior of the State, and had reached 
a country tavern where he was to stay for the night. He was 
seated by a table in his room engaged in writing, when the land- 
lord came up and announced that two young men were below and 
wished to see him, and added that their manner seemed rather 
singular. He had heard that two very enthusiastic young gentle- 
men were on his track, and he was not therefore surprised at the 
announcement. Taking out his pistols, and laying them before 
him, he told the landlord to show them up. They came up, and 
as one was about to advance into his room Burr told them not to 
approach a foot nearer. Then addressing him he said, ' What is 
your business?' The foremost said, 'Are you Col, Burr?' 
'Yes,' said the Colonel, 'Well,' says the young man, 'we have 
come to take your life, and mean to have it before we go away. 
Upon this. Burr, laying his hand upon one of his pistols, replied. 



122 FAIRFIEL^BRANCH. 

* You are brave fellows, are you not, to come here two of you 
against one man ? Now if either of you has any courage, come 
out with me, and choose your own distance, and I'll give you a 
chance to make fame. But if you don't accept this proposal,' 
bringing the severest glance of his terrible eyes to bear upon them, 

* I'll take the life of the first one of you that raises his arm,' 
They were both cowed, and walked off like puppies. 

'■■ It may not be out of place here to relate another incident, illus- 
trating Col. Burr's remarkable presence of mind, which occurred 
while he was in Paris, He had received a remittance of a consid- 
erable sum of money, and his valet formed a plan to rob him of it 
by coming upon him, unawares, with a loaded pistol. Burr was 
engaged in reading or writing in his room at a late hour at night, 
when the fellow entered with pistol in hand. Burr recognized 
him in a moment, and turning suddenly around, said to him 
sternly, 'How dare you come into the room with your hat on ?' 
The valet struck with sudden awe and the consciousness of hav- 
ing violated that decorum, which had from habit virtually be- 
come a part of his nature, raised his arm to take off his hat, when 
Burr rushed upon him, tripped him down, wrested the pistol from 
him, and calling for aid, had him secured and carried off. 

•'Col. Burr, as is well known, was what is termed 'a good shot 
with a pistol. To illustrate his skill in this respect, I will relate a 
circumstance told me by an old colored man named ' Harry,' 
who was in the habit, while I was with Col. Burr, of coming to his 
house, to clean his boots, and do little jobs. ' Harry ' had lived 
many years with the Colonel while the latter's residence was at 
Eichmond Hill in the upper part of New York. The Colonel 
often had dinner parties, and after dinner the gentlemen would go 
out upon the back piazza, to enjoy the air, and would amuse them- 
selves by firing with a pistol at apples which Harry would throw 
up for them. Said Harry, laughing in the way peculiar to an old 
African, ' De Colonel would hit em' almos ev'ry time, while de 
oder gentlement couldn't hit 'em at all.' 

" The charge against Col. Burr of treason has formed a promi- 
nent part of his history. All the facts developed on the trial have 
been long since published, and it will not of course be expected 
that I should refer to them. I will say, however, that this was a 
subject upon which he was always disposed, whenever proper, to 
converse with those who were intimate with him. I myself have 
conversed with him upon it. He said he had been entirely mis- 



COL. AARON BURR. 123 

represented and misunderstood as to the object which he had in 
view. He had never, he stated, any design hostile to the United 
States or any part of it. His object was, as he said, to make him- 
self master of Mexico, and place himself at the head of it, and 
if they had let him alone he would have done it. He seemed to 
entertain a great contempt for Gen. Wilkinson, who was in com- 
mand at the South at the time, considering him a very weak man. 

" Colonel Burr, like other great men, had some remarkable eccen- 
tricities of character. He was very fond of all sorts of inventions, 
and always trying experiments. He puzzled his brain for a long 
time to get some motive power which would avoid the necessity of 
using fire or steam, of which Livingston and Fulton then held the 
monopoly. He had models made, and I also got my ambition ex- 
cited about it. 

'' But his efforts, and my own philosophical powers and chemical 
knowledge fell short, after a hard trial, of accomplishing the ob- 
ject. One great end which he desired to attain in housekeeping 
was to save fuel, not money ; and I have known him to go to an 
expense, I should judge, of forty or fifty dollars in contrivances 
to save five dollars in the value of wood consumed. 

•' He was very liberal and even reckless in spending money for 
certain purposes, while in others, such as bills of mechanics, he 
was very particular and scrutinizing. He liked to have a bill 
looked over very carefully, and reduced to as low an amount as 
the case would admit of, but, so far as I know, never practiced 
any dishonesty or refused to pay any just debt which he had in- 
curred. 

" I have forborne thus far to refer to a matter connected with the 
character of Col. Burr, and identified almost with his name, and 
although not within the plan with which I started in this notice, I 
ought not perhaps to omit it. I allude of course to his gallantries. 
This is a topic upon which it would be impossible to speak with 
any particularity without transcending that limit of propriety 
within which all public discussions should be confined. I shall 
therefore speak of it in the most general terms. I do not believe 
that Col. Burr was any worse in this respect, than many men of 
his men and of the present day, who pass for letter men. 

" The difference between them is, that he was much less disguised 
and that he did not pretend to be what he was not. / think he 
was quite as much sought after hy the other sex as he was a seeker. 
There seemed indeed to be a charm and fascination about him which 



124 FA IRFIEI^ BRA NCH. 

continued to a late period of his life, and which was too powerful 
for the frail, and sometimes even for the strong, to resist. I know 
that he has been charged with much wrong in this respect, and it 
may be with truth. I feel no disposition to justify iiim in his 
course, or even to palliate what must be regarded in its best aspect 
as a vice. But I have heard him say, and if it be true it is cer- 
tainly much in his favor, tliat he never deceived or made a false 
promise to a woman in his life. This is much more than many 
can say, who have a much better name than he has. 

" His married life with Mrs. Prevost (who had died before I 
went into his office) was of the most affectionate character, and his 
fidelity never questioned. There is another thing, too, which I 
will add to his credit. He was always a gentleman in his language 
and deportment. Nothing of a low, ribald, indecent or even in- 
delicate character ever escaped his lips. He had no disposition to 
corrupt others. One other thing I will add in this connection: 
Col. Burr, in everything relating to business, and indeed in all his 
epistolary correspondence with men, had a special regard for the 
maxim that 'things written remain,' and was very careful as to 
what he wrote. But with regard to the other sex, such was his 
confidence in them, that he wrote to them with very little restraint. 
I must point you to one admirable and strong characteris- 
tic in him. He sought with young men, in whom he felt an in- 
terest, to graft them as it were, with his own indomitable will, en- 
ergy and perseverance. I can truly say that, althougli I was often 
overtasked beyond my powers, and even to the injury, no doubt, 
of my health, so that his course seemed to me to be over-exacting 
and oppressive, yet that he constantly incited me to progress in all 
the various modes and departments of mental culture, even in mu- 
sic, the influence of which he deemed of great importance, although 
he had but little taste for, and no knowledge of it himself ; and 
that my success in life, as far as I have succeeded, has been owing 
to the habits of industry and perseverance which were formed un- 
der his training. 

"As to the character of his mind, it would be probably pre- 
sumptuous in me to attempt to analyze it. If I should express an 
opinion, it would be that it was not large, comprehensive, and 
philosophical, but rather quick, penetrating and discerning. He 
was a shrewd planner, and indefatigable and persevering in carry- 
ing out his plans, although he did not always succeed in accom- 
pli.-^hing them. He was a good scholar, acquainted with polite 



COL. AARON BURR. 125 

literature, and spoke the French and Spanish — the former fluently. 
I think his heart was not in the profession of the law, and that he 
followed.it principally for its gains. He was, however, a good 
lawyer, was versed in the common, civil, and international law ; 
acquainted generally with the reports of adjudicated cases, and, in 
preparing important cases, usually traced up the law to its ancient 
sources. But political and military life seemed to interest him 
more than anything else, although he never neglected his business. 
He prided himself probably more upon his military qualities than 
upon any other, and if he could have gratified his ambition by 
becoming Emperor of Mexico he would no doubt have been in his 
glory." 

Concerning Burr's habits in regard to money, the following 
pleasant anecdote is related by Mr. Parton in his life of the 
Colonel. " An anecdote," says he, " related to me by the wife of 
one of Burr's partners, will serve to illustrate his infirmity with 
regard to the use of money. He may have been seventy yeai's old 
when the circumstances took place. The lady chanced to be sit- 
ting in the office one morning, when Burr received a large amount 
of money in bills, and, as his habits with regard to money had 
often been the subject of remark in the house, she watched his pro- 
ceedings with curiosity. She saw him first take a law-book from 
an upper shelf, put a fifty dollar note between its leaves, and re- 
place the book on the shelf. The rest of the money he deposited 
in the middle of his table as usual. He had, on that morning, an 
extraordinary concourse of begging visitors, of whom no one 
seemed to go empty away, and by three o'clock in the afternoon, 
the well was exhausted. An hour later. Col. Burr looked at his 
watch, sprang from his chair, and began hastily to pack his port- 
manteau with law papers, in preparation for a journey to Albany, 
where he had business in the courts. When he was ready, he 
looked into his receptacle for money and discovered that it was 
empty. An examination of his pockets disclosed only a few coins. 
' Bless me! ' he exclaimed, ' I have to go to Albany in half an hour 
and have no money.' Could madame lend him ten dollars ? 
Madame could not. Would madame oblige him by stepping over 
and asking her good mother to lend him the amount ? Madame 
was of opinion that her good mother would not lend Col. Burr any 
more money. He was at his wit's end; at length she said, "But, 
Colonel, what are you going to do with the fifty dollar bill in that 



126 FAIRFIEJ^ BRANCH. 

book yonder?' ' 0! I forgot,' he said ; ' I put it there this morn- 
ing on purpose. What a treasure you are to remind me of it."' 

The following reminiscence from a New York newspaper will 
be found interesting. " Just round the corner (from Broadway) 
in Reade Street — we believe on ground now occupied by Stewart's 
— was the office, for many of the later years of his life, tenanted 
by Aaron Burr. We, when a boy, remember seeing iiim there 
often. It was a dark, smoky, obscure sort of a double-room, typi- 
cal of his fortunes. Burr had entirely lost caste for thirty years 
before he died, and whatever may be said of his character and 
conduct, we think nothing can excuse the craven meanness of the 
many, who, having fawned around him in the days of his eleva- 
tion, deserted and reviled him in the aftertime of misfortune. 
Burr had much of the bad man in him (faith, we'd like to see 
the human mould that has not), but he was dauntless, intellectual, 
and possessed the warm temperament of an artist. Yes, we re- 
member well that dry, bent, brown-faced little old man, polite as 
Chesterfield himself, that used to sit by an ancient baize table, in 
the half-light of the dust-covered room, there — not often with 
work to do- — indeed he generally seemed meditating. 

"We can no?^' understand it all. though he seemed a strange 
personage then. What thoughts must have burned and whirled 
through that old man's brain — he, who came within a vote or two 
of seating himself as a successor of Washington. Even to our boy- 
ish judgment then, he was invested with the dignity of a historic 
theme. He had all the air of a gentleman of the old school, was 
respectful, self-possessed and bland, but never familiar. He had 
seen a hundred men morally as unscrupulous as himself, more 
lucky, for some reason or other, than himself. He was down; he 
was old. He awaited his fate with Spartan calmness — knowing 
that not a tear would fall when he should be put under the sod." 

At my request, Mr. Parton kindly transmitted to me the Burr 
papers which had collected since his work was published, with 
full permission to use them as I thought best. Among them I fiind 
this interesting extract, from a religious journal, concerning Col. 
Burr's early education: 

" The oldest son of President Edwards congratulating a friend 
on having a family of sons, said to him with much earnestness, 
* Remember there is but one mode of family government. I have 
brought up and educated fourteen boys, two of whom I brought, 
or rather suffered to grow up without the rod. One of those was 



COL. AARON BURB. 127 

my youngest brother,* and the other Aaron Burr, my sister's only 
son, both of whom had lost their parents in childhood, and from 
my observation and experience, I tell you, sir, a maple-sugar gov- 
ernment will never answer. Beware how you let the first act of 
disobedience in your little boys go unnoticed, and unless evidence 
of repentance be manifest, unpunished.' " f 

No doubt, the stern puritan was but an indifferent master for 
so headstrong a youth, still it was evident that Col. Burr's many 
serious faults were not all the result of a defective education. 
Some of them were perhaps inherited. Thoroughly furnished as 
he was, mentally and physically, there was yet something lacking 
in his moral make-up, otherwise he would have been perfect. It 
would be curious too, if we should be able to find the cause of 
this. 

The genealogist will remember that the Edwards blood was 
not without taint, that the grandmother of Jonathan Edwards was 
insane, and that several of her family were victims of the same 
distressing malady. Whether this had any effect upon the tem- 
perament of her remote descendant, Col. Burr, we neither main- 
tain nor deny. The fact is mentioned as affording food for 
thought to the curious. 

Among the papers above referred to I also found a letter from 
Col. Burr to a legal friend in New York, which, as showing the 
sprightliness and vivacity of his spirit, that even age could not 
tame, I feel moved to produce here. It is dated at Albany, March 
15th, 1814. 

'' I pray you never again to be silent, in hopes, etc. That 
apology has been worn out more than 1000 years ago ; from you 
something original is expected. Letters which require and de- 
serve to be answered at all, should be answered immediately. 
Your pleadings, though not very technical, are in substance good 
as to the point charged, but not altogether satisfactory as to the 
subsequent period. Keep a better lookout. Yes, send copies of 
my letters to Graves and Mad. F. by the Cartel about to sail for 
Gottenburg. To the letter of Mad. F. add 

' P. S. 17eme Mars, 1814, 

*Le sauvage est actuellment a cent lieues dans I'interieure 

* Pierrepont Edwards. 

t This is not in character with what Col. Burr used to relate as to his uncle's mode of 
government, for we have Burr's own testimony, that on one occasion, at least, his uncle 
" licked him like a sack." 



128 FAIRFIMf) BRANCH. 



8ur une affaire tr^s int^ressante pour lui et poar A. H. C ; on aura 
le resultat au bout d'un mois.'* 

" Still, my dear John, I am a sceptic about your health. You 
have not been pleased to name your Hippocrate. I can at this 
distance give no instruction, other than that you observe a very 
temperate diet. About three weeks ago I enclosed you twenty 
dollars, i. e., ten for Nancy, and ten for contingencies, the receipt 
has not been acknowledged. I no longer hear anything of the 
employment of your time. It is feared that things do not go 
well.t A. B." 

From "Personal Recollections of Aaron Burr," published in a 
late issue of the Cincinnati Commercial, I extract the following : " I 
once heard Hon. Edward Everett relate an incident that occurred 
in Albany in his presence, that forcibly displayed his power over 
minds the most strongly biased against him. It was immediately 
after his secret and sad return from Europe. A case of great 
pecuniary importance, if I remember right, of the Van Rensselaers 
against the city, in which the plaintiffs had apparently made no 
preparations for an advocate, only employing a young lawyer to 
prepare and present the case. Surprise at this fact became indig- 
nation, when it was whispered about that Aaron Burr had returned 
from Europe and was employed in the case. Such was the indig- 
nation that court and bar conspired to put him down with coughs, 
hisses and Jeers, — that they would not hear him, — as an advocate 
lynch him. The trial proceeded, and at the proper time a side 
door opened, and a little figure walked silently in, and addressed 
the court. Not a cough, hiss, stamp, scratch of a pen, or even 
breath, or apparently a wink, disturbed that calm musical voice 
during a long speech, and the case was won." 

A few years before his death Col. Burr married Madame Jumel, 
a wealthy lady of New York, and many years his junior. The 
marriage resulted unhappily, and after a few months was annulled. 

In December, 1833, while Col. Burr was walking in Broadway 
with a friend, he was stricken with a paralysis, which confined 
him for some weeks to his room. He recovered from this attack, 
however, almost wholly, and was seen about the streets as usual. 



* This " poBtscript " might be freely translated, " The savage is actually away a hun- 
dred miles in the interior, on an aHair very interesting to himself and to A. H. C. ; one may 
expect to hear the result by the end of the month." 

Perhaps some one who remembers the men and things of that period, can tell us who the 
" savage " and A. H. C. were. 

t For other letters of Col. Burr, gee Appendix C. 



COL. AARON BURR. 129 

This was followed in a few months by a second stroke, which de- 
prived him forever of all use of his lower limbs ; two years of inac- 
tion then followed, during which, although his mind was as active 
and strong as ever, his physical powers were gradually failing. 
During these years he was the honored guest of a lady, whose 
father had been his intimate friend, and who had herself known 
him from childhood. This lady proved to be a true Samaritan, 
one of those rare souls who embody the truths of Christianity in 
their lives. Unmindful of the construction put upon her acts by 
society, she cared for the old man with tender assiduity, as long as 
life lasted, and after his death used both tongue and pen in defend- 
ing his memory. 

In the spring of 1836, he grew rapidly weaker, and it became 
evident to all that he had not many months to live. It chanced 
that the house occupied by his kind benefactress was to be pulled 
down that summer, and the Colonel was removed for the season to 
Port Eichmond, on Staten Island. Here he died on Wednesday, 
the 14th of September, 1836, aged nearly eighty-one years. 

The Rev. Dr. Vanpelt of the Dutch Reformed Church fre- 
quently visited him during his last days and administered spirit- 
ual consolation ; and Col. Burr always received his visits with 
courtesy and thankfulness. On one of these occasions, in answer 
to the Doctor's queries as to his view of the Holy Scriptures, he 
responded, ' ' they are the most perfect system of truth the world 
has ever seen." At his last visit the clergyman inquired as to his 
faith in God and his hope of salvation through the merits of 
Christ, to which he responded with evident emotion, *'that on 
that subject he was coy," meaning as- the Doctor thought, that on 
a subject so momentous, he felt cautious about expressing an 
opinion. 

A small party of friends accompanied the body to Princeton, 
where, in the college chapel, the funeral ceremonies were per- 
formed. The funeral sermon was preached by Dr. Carnahan, 
then President of the college. It was charitable in tone, and was 
delivered before a large audience, composed of the townspeople 
and the college students. 

His remains were followed to the grave by the faculty and Cli- 
osophic Society of the college, a large body of citizens and by a de- 
tachment of the Mercer Guards of Princeton, who fired over his 
grave the customary volleys. 

His grave is near those of his honored father and grandfather, 
9 



130 FAlRFI^p BRANCH. 

and is marked by a simple and unpretentious monument of marble, 
"which bears this inscription : 

AARON BURR. 

Born February 6th, 1756. 
Died September 14th, 1836. 

A Colonel in the Army of the Revolution. 
Vice President of the United States from 1801 to 1805. 



THEODOSIA BURR ALSTON. [256] 

BoEN at Albany, 1783, lost at sea in January, 1813 — between 
the two dates fill in such joy, brilliant promise, beauty, accom- 
plishments, intense sorrow, and tragic fate, as never woman 
knew before, and one has the history of this remarkable lady 
in epitome. 

No daughter ever received a heartier welcome to the home and 
hearts of her parents, and none ever awakened greater parental 
care and solicitude than did she. Her father was so constituted, 
that while he would have been proud of, and honored a son, a 
daughter called out all the strength and affection of his nature, 
and he devoted himself to her care and education with a zeal and 
assiduity that knew no cessation. With the earliest glimmering 
of reason, her education began. She was taught to sleep alone in 
the rooms of the great mansion at Richmond Hill, to be prompt, 
diligent, and self-reliant, polite and mannerly to all, kind and con- 
siderate to her inferiors, and was grounded in all the elements of 
a solid and ornamental education. At the age of ten, ••' she was 
precocious, like all her race, and was accounted a prodigy ; and she 
really was a child of precocious endowments." She is also spoken 
of at this time as having the family diminutiveness, and as being 
a plump, pretty, and blooming girl. Her father had the utmost 
horror of her growing into the mere fashionable woman of society, 
and, while a senator at Philadelphia, thus wrote to his wife on 
the subject — "Cursed effects of fashionable education, of which 
both sexes are the advocates, and yours the victims ; if I could 
foresee that Theo. would become a mere fashionable woman with 
all the attendant frivolity, and vacuity of mind, adorned with 
whatever grace or allurement, I would earnestly pray God to take 
her forthwith hence." There was not much danger of her becom- 
ing so, for at the time that letter was written, she was reading 
Horace and Terence in the original, mastering the Greek grammar, 
studying Gibbon, speaking French, practicing on the piano, and 
taking lessons in dancing and skating. 

At the age of fourteen, she became the mistress of her father's 



132 FAIRFimm BRANCH. 



mansion at Richmond Hill, and entertained his numerous guests, 
— senators, judges, grave divines, foreign notabilities — with the 
most charming grace and dignity. At that early age she was hei 
father's friend and counsellor. She wrote letters that displayed 
a masculine force and directness. She translated grave political 
treatises from English to French, was familiar with the philo- 
sophical and economical writers of her day, and proficient in the 
Greek, Latin, and German tongues, and was, what she is freely 
admitted to have been, the most charming and accomplished 
woman of her day. In her eighteenth year she was married to 
Joseph Alston of South Carolina, then twenty-two years of age, a 
gentleman of large wealth and assured position, and a lawyer by 
profession, though he had never entered into practice. 

It was the gossip of the day, and still believed by some, that 
she was forced into this marriage by her father, from political and 
prudential reasons chiefly, while she was really in love with a 
young writer of the town, one Washington Irving, whose articles 
in the newspapers of the day were then attracting much attention. 
But the story lacks confirmation. Irving and the lovely Theo- 
dosia were acquaintances, it is true, and frequently met in society, 
but there is no proof of any intimacy between them. 

Immediately after her marriage, the bride accompanied her 
husband to South Carolina, and the happy pair took up their resi- 
dence at the Oaks, the patrimonial estate of Mr. Alston, and one 
of the most charming of South Carolina homes. Soon after his 
marriage, the young husband, spurred by Col. Burr's vigorous 
mind, entered public life, and in a few years, by the aid of his tal- 
ents and position, was elected Chief Magistrate of the State. To 
add to the young wife's happiness, a beautiful boy was born in 
the first year of her marriage, which was christened Aaron Burr 
Alston, around whom the liveliest hopes of the parents and of 
the far-ofE grandfather as well, clustered. This event we may 
suppose completed the sum of her happiness ; indeed her life, for 
the first five years of her marriage, was all brightness and sun- 
shine. An honored wife and proud mother, beautiful, accom- 
plished, and fascinating, a Vice President's daughter, and a Gov- 
ernor's wife, leading the society of two States, petted and adored by 
all — who could at this time have foreseen her coming misfortunes 
and tragic fate. 

In the summer of 1806, she spent some weeks with her father 
at Blennerhasset's Island, and on the Cumberland. In the fall 



THE0D08IA BURR ALSTON. 133 

they parted ; he to plant his colony on the Washita, and if events 
favored, to seat himself on the throne of the Montezumas ; she to 
return to South Carolina, and wait. The winter passed. In May 
she was horrified to learn that her father was in jail at Richmond, 
and about to be tried for his life on a charge of treason, but let- 
ters from her father which swiftly followed the news, allayed in 
some measure, her apprehensions. They assured her of his inno- 
cence, that his arrest was the work of his political enemies, and 
that they would be foiled, and himself completely exonerated from 
all charges. 

But the devoted daughter felt that she must be with her father 
in this hour of adversity, and at once set out for Richmond ; she 
arrived a few days before the trial began, and remained until it 
was concluded by the acquittal of her father, spending most of 
the time in the prison with him, and proudly sharing the odium 
that was gathering about his name. 

What she thought, and how she felt in regard to her father's 
alleged crime, and the labors of his enemies, is very frankly stated 
in the following letter written to a friend at the conclusion of the 
trial : 

"I have this moment received a message from court, announc- 
ing to me that the jury has brought in a verdict of acquittal, and 
I hasten to inform you of it, my dear, to allay the anxiety which, 
with even more than your usual sweetness, you have expressed in 
your letter of the 22d of July. It afflicts me, indeed, to think that 
you should have suffered so much from sympathy with the im- 
agined state of my feelings ; for the knowledge of my father's in- 
nocence, my ineffable contempt for his enemies, and the elevation 
of his mind, have kept me above any sensations bordering on de- 
pression. Indeed, my father, so far from accepting of sympathy, 
has continually animated all around him ; it was common to see 
his desponding friends filled with alarm at some new occurrence, 
terrified with some new appearance of danger, fly to him in search 
of encouragement and support, and laughed out of their fears by 
the subject of them. This I have witnessed every- day, and it 
almost persuaded me that he possessed the secret of repelling dan- 
ger as well as apprehension. Since my residence here, of which 
some days and a night were passed in the penitentiary, our little 
family circle has been a scene of uninterrupted gayety. Thus you 
see, my lovely sister, this visit has been a real party of pleasure. 
From many of the first inhabitants, I have received the most un- 



134 FAIRFJ^J) BRANCH. 

remitting and delicate attentions, sympathy indeed, of any I ever 
experienced." 

Nor did her devotion falter during subsequent years, when her 
father was an exile, and in his own country everywhere spoken 
against. She gladly shared his reproach, as she had his honor, 
and for those who, without a particle of evidence, and in the face 
of his triumphant vindication by the courts, could condemn and 
ostracize the innocent, she expressed only the most unmitigated 
contempt. Meantime slie wrote letters of womanly tenderness and 
cheer to the exile, and eagerly watched the political horizon for 
signs of an abatement of the popular resentment. She also ad- 
dressed letters to eminent public men, pleading her father's cause, 
and asking their opinion as to his safety should he venture to re- 
turn to his native land. Some idea of the style and force of these 
epistles may be gathered from the following, addressed to Mrs. 
James Madison, wife of the President, on this subject, and with 
whom she had been quite intimate in brighter days : 

Rocky River Springs, June 24th, 1809. 

Madam : — You may perhaps be surprised at receiving a letter 
from one with whom you have had so little intercourse for the last 
few years. But your surprise will cease when you recollect that 
my father, once your friend, is now in exile ; and that the Presi- 
dent only can restore him to me, and to his country. Ever since 
the choice of the people was first declared in favor of Mr. Madison, 
my heart, amid the universal joy, has beat with the hope that I 
too should soon have reason to rejoice. Convinced that Mr. Madi- 
son would neither feel, nor judge, from the feelings or judgment 
of others, I had no doubt of his hastening to relieve a man, whose 
character he had been enabled to appreciate during a confidential 
intercourse of long continuance, and whom he must know incapa- 
ble of the designs attributed to him. My anxiety on this subject 
has, however, become too painful to be alleviated by anticipations 
which no events have yet tended to justify, and in this state of in- 
tolerable suspense, I have determined to address myself to you, 
and request that you will, in my name, apply to the President for 
a removal of the prosecution now existing against Aaron Burr. I 
still expect it from him, as a man of feeling and candor, as one 
acting for the world and for posterity. 

Statesmen, I am aware, deem it necessary that sentiments of 



TEE0B08IA BURR ALSTON. 135 

liberality, and even justice, should yield to considerations of policy, 
but what policy can require the absence of my father at present ? 
Even had he contemplated the project for which he stands ar- 
raigned, evidently to pursue it any further would now be impossible. 
There is not left one pretext of alarm, even to calumny. For be- 
reft of fortune, of popular favor, and almost of friends, what could 
he accomphsh ; and whatever may be the apprehensions, or clamors 
of the ignorant and the interested, surely the timid, illiberal sys- 
tem which would sacrifice a man to a remote and unreasonable 
possibility that he might infringe some law founded on an unjust, 
unwarrantable suspicion that he would desire it, cannot be ap- 
proved by Mr. Madison, and must be unnecessary to a President 
so loved, so honored. Why then, is my father banished from a 
country for which he has encountered wounds, and dangers, and 
fatigue, for years ? Why is he driven from his friends, from an 
only child, to pass an unlimited time in exile, and that, too, at 
an age when others are reaping the harvest of past toils, or ought 
at least to be providing seriously for the comfort of ensuing 
years ? I do not seek to soften you by this recapitulation. I wish 
only to remind you of all the injuries which are inflicted on one 
of the first characters the United States ever produced. Perhaps 
it may be well to assure you, there is no truth in a report lately 
circulated, that my father intends returning immediately. 

He never will return to conceal himself in a country on which 
he has conferred distinction. To whatever fate Mr. Madison may 
doom this application, I trust it will be treated with delicacy. Of 
this I am the more desirous, as Mr. Alston is ignorant of the step 
I have taken in writing to you, which, perhaps nothing could ex- 
cuse but the warmth of filial affection. If it be an error, attrib- 
ute it to the indiscreet zeal of a daughter whose soul sinks at the 
gloomy prospect of a long and indefinite separation from a father 
almost adored, and who can leave nothing unattempted, which of- 
fers the slightest hope of procuring him redr«ss. What indeed 
would I not risk once more to see him, to hang upon him, to 
place my child upon his knee, and again spend my days in the 
happy occupation of endeavoring to anticipate his wishes. Let me 
entreat, my dear madam, that you will have the consideration 
and goodness to answer me as speedily as possible ; my heart is 
sore with doubt and patient waiting for something definite. No 
apologies are made for giving you this trouble, which I am sure 
you will not deem it irksome to take for a daughter, an affec- 



136 fairfiWd branch. 

tionate daughter thus situated. Inclose your letter for me to 
A. J. Frederic Prevost, Esq., near New Rochelle, New York. 
That every happiness may attend you is the sincere wish of 

Theo. Burr Alstob". 

To Mm. James Madison, Washington, D. C. 

It was from assurances received in answer to this letter, that 
Col. Burr, in 1810, began to think once more of his native land. 
In the spring of 1812 her father arrived in Boston, but hardly had 
the news of his arrival reached her, when she was called upon to 
suffer a bereavement, beside which those that had preceded it 
seemed trifles light as air. Her boy, her only child, a handsome 
promising lad of eleven years, the "little Gamp" so frequently 
mentioned In Burr's letters, sickened and died. This blow shat- 
tered in an instant the hopes of years, and plunged both parents 
and grandfather in the deepest depths of affliction. 

"But a few miserable days past,*' wrote the poor bereaved 
mother to her father, announcing her loss, " and your late letters 
would have gladdened my soul, and even now I rejoice at their 
contents, as much as it is possible for me to rejoice at anything ; 
but there is no more joy for me. The world is a blank. I have 
lost my boy. My child is gone forever. He expired on the 30th 
of June. My head ^ not sufficiently collected to say anything fur- 
ther. May heaven by other things make you some amends for the 
noble grandson you have lost. He was eleven years old." The 
mother never recovered from the effects of this shock. 

For years her health had been delicate, owing in some meas- 
ure, no doubt, to the unfavorable influence of the climate, and as 
early as 1805, she had been forced to admit the probability of an 
early death, and at that time prepared a letter to be given to her 
husband after her death, and which was found among her effects 
after her decease in 1812. This letter, so natural, and so charac- 
teristic, conveys a better idea of the life and character of this re- 
markable woman, than could pages of studied description and 
eulogy. It was intended for one eye alone, but as it has been before 
published, and as it exhibits its author in a most favorable light, 
there can be no impropriety in reproducing it here. 

The following is the letter : 

Aag. 6, 1805. 

" Whether it is the effect of extreme debility and disordered 
nerves, or whether it is really presentiment, the existence of which 



TEE0D081A BURR ALSTON. 137 

I nave often been told of and always doubted, I can not tell ; but 
something whispers me that my end approaches. In vain I rea- 
son with myself ; in vain I occupy my mind and seek to fix my 
attention on other subjects ; there is about me that dreadful heav- 
iness and sinking of the heart, that awful foreboding of which it 
is impossible to divest myself. 

'• Perhaps I am now standing on the brink of eternity, and ere 
I plunge in the fearful abyss, I have some few requests to make. 
I wish your sisters (one of .them, it is immaterial which) would 
select from my clothes certain things which, they will easily per- 
ceive, belong to my mother. These, with whatever lace they find 
in a large trunk in a garret-room of the Oaks House, added to a 
little satin-wood box, (the largest, and having a lock and key) and 
a black satin embroidered box with a pin-cushion ; all these things 
I wish they would put together in one trunk, and send them to 
Frederic Prevost, with the enclosed letter." 

Then follow several bequests, after which the letter continues : 

" To you, my beloved, I leave my child, the child of my bosom, 
who was once a part of myself, and from whom I shall shortly be 
separated by the cold grave. You love him now, henceforth love 
him for me also. And oh, my husband, attend to this last prayer 
of a doting mother. Never, never, listen to what any other per- 
son tells you of him. Be yourself his judge on all occasions. He 
has faults ; see them and correct them yourself. Desist not an 
instant from your endeavors to secure his confidence. It is a 
work which requires as much uniformity of conduct as warmth of 
afiection toward him. 

"I know, my beloved, that you can perceive what is right on 
this subject, as on every other. But recollect, these are the last 
words I can ever utter. It will tranquillize my last moments to 
have disburdened myself of them. I fear you will scarcely be 
able to read this scrawl, but I feel hurried and agitated. Death is 
not welcome to me ; I confess it is ever dreaded. You^have made 
me too fond of life. Adieu then, thou kind, thou tender husband. 
Adieu, friend of my heart. May heaven prosper you, and may we 
meet hereafter. Adieu, perhaps we may never see each other 
again in this world. You are away; I wished to hold you fast, and 
prevent you from going this morning. 

" But He who is wisdom itself ordains events ; we must submit 
to them. Least of all should I murmur. I on whom so many 
blessings have been showered, whose days have been numbered by 



138 FAIRFIELD BRANCH. 

bounties, who have had such a husband, such a child, and such a 
father. Oh, pardon me, my God, if I regret leaving tliese. I re- 
sign myself. Adieu once more and for the last time, my beloved. 
Speak of me often to our son. Let him love the memory of his 
mother, and let him know how he was loved by her. 

Your wife, your fond wife, 

Theo." 

This letter was written in the summer of 1805. In this sum- 
mer of 1812, her malady had greatly increased. She sank into a 
listless apathetic state, pitiful to see and from which it was diffi- 
cult to rouse her. Her boy was dead, henceforth life was a blank, 
and existence a burden. 

In the fall," her father, alarmed, insisted that she sliould come 
North ; he even sent an old friend to her home to accompany her 
on the journey. It was manifestly impossible for her in her en- 
feebled state to make the journey by land, and the party, com- 
prising Theodosia, her maid, her physician and Mr. Green, pro- 
ceeded to Charleston, and embarked on a small schooner called the 
Patriot. The vessel sailed on the 30th of December, 1812, and 
was never again heard of. 

It was the commonly received opinion that she foundered off 
Hatteras. in a heavy storm that visited the coast a few days after 
she left port ; but forty years after, a paragraph appeared in a 
Texan newspaper and went the rounds of the press, giving a differ- 
ent version of her fate. 

This paragraph purported to be the confession of a sailor who 
had recently died in Texas, and who declared on his death bed 
that he was one of the crew of the Patriot in December 1812, and 
that during the voyage the sailors mutinied and murdered all the 
officers and passengers, Mrs. Alston being the last to walk the 
plank. 

To this statement the Pennsylvania Enquirer added corrobora- 
tive evidence as follows : 

"An item of news just now going the rounds relates that a sailor, 
who died in Texas, confessed on his death bed that he was one of 
the crew of mutineers who, some forty years ago, took possession of 
a brig on its passage from Charleston to New York, and caused all 
the ojQBcers and passengers to walk the plank. For forty years the 
wretched man has carried about the dreadful secret, and died at 
last in an agony of despair. 



THE0D08IA BURR ALSTON. 139 

** What gives this story additional interest is the fact that the 
Tessel referred to is the one in which Mrs. Theodosia Alston, the 
beloved daughter of Aaron Burr, took passage for New York, for 
the purpose of meeting her parent in the darkest days of his exist- 
ence, and which, never having been heard of, was supposed to 
have been foundered at sea. 

*' The dying sailor professed to remember her well, said she was 
the last who perished, and that he never forgot her look of despair 
as she took the last step from the fatal plank. On reading this ac- 
count, I regarded it as a fiction ; but on conversing with an officer 
of the navy he assures me of the probable truth, and states that on 
one of his passages home some years ago, his vessel brought two 
pirates in irons, who were subsequently executed at Norfolk for 
recent offences, and who, before their execution, confessed that 
they had been members of the same crew and participated in the 
murder of Mrs. Alston and her companions. 

" Whatever opinion may be entertained of the father, the memory 
of the daughter must be revered as one of the loveliest and most 
excellent of American women, and the revelation of her untimely 
fate can only serve to invest that memory with a more tender and N 

melancholy interest." 

And this is all that can be certainly known in regard to her 
death. The reader will draw his own conclusions ; but in either 
case what a tragic fate was hers ! 

To her father this was the "event that separated him from the 
human race." To her husband thus doubly bereaved, it proved 
a blow from the effects of which he never fully recovered. He 
survived his wife and child but a few years, dying at Charleston, 
Sept. 10th, 1816, at the early age of thirty-eight years. 



APPENDIX 0. 4:19 



APPENDIX C. 

Letters from Col. Aaron Burr to Ms sister Mrs. Reeve, found in 
the garret of the old Reeve mansion at Litchfield, Gt. , and never 
before published j also two letters from Mrs. Prevost, afterward 
wife of Col. Burr. 

LETTER I. 

^ „ Cambridge, August 36th. 

Dear Sister, 

This is the fourth Letter I have wrote you — and two I have 
sent to Mr. Keeve since I have been here — and yet Mr. Phillips 
tells me you complain grievously that I never write — I hope then 
you will allow me to freeze a little, for I have not reed a single 
Line from either of you since I have been at this Place — I am 
told indeed there are Letters in Town for me brought by the 
Litchfield Post, but no mortal knows where he has laid them — 
pray direct him to leave my Letters for the future at Pomeroy's 
opposite the College — there I lodge — 

You sha'n't have one word of Politicks in this Letter for 
several Eeasons — one is I am just out of Bed rouz'd by Mr. 
Phillips — and have not yet my Eyes open — much less my Senses — 
and furthermore — Mr. Phil- goes off in ten Minutes to Roxbury and 
is doubtful whether he will return to this Place again — if he does, 
I shall have another Letter to give him ; if not this must suffice. 

Yesterday I reed a Letter from T. Edwards, very urgent for 
me to go to Stockbridge and from thence with him to attend an 
Indian Congress to be holden at Albany — but I think I shall take 
no notice of his Invitation — his Letter was dated August 2'Zd all 
well — but I fear Mr. Ph's Patience is exhausted — remember me 
with Abundance of Love to my Brother. 
I am dear Sister 

your Affte Brother &c. 

A. B. 

Yon shall receive a Letter by every Post if you will direct him 
to me. 

letter II. 

Camp before Quebec, 2nd Feb. 7 1 /76. 
I have just time my dear Sister once more to assure you that I 
am your Brother, tho' in Canada — I have been anticipating half a 



420 APPimpix a 

Dozen Letters from you by the next Post — they will be to me 
like — like what shall I compare them to ? like a Eind of Pork in 
the Wilderness — I had thoughts of giving you a little sketch of 
my manner of Life — but perhaps you will have it from Mr. Ogden, 
and at any Rate I see no very good end to be answered by it — be 
it enough for you, that I am dirty, ragged, moneyless and friend- 
less and no Prospect of bettering myself very speedily — 

Litchfield seems to mc like some ideal Region in the Moon, 
some place I have visited in Vision and tasted a thousand Rap- 
tures — do write of the old Raschals and the new, who are up and 
who down — I think I could with no small pleasure — but I'll say 
no more for fear you'll think I've some female in my eye — apropos 
of females — I think this a good opening to finish the Affair of 
Gallantry I began in my last — I began as I informed you I should 
— made regular Approaches — I flash'd out so inimitably that the 
Torrent was too mighty ; it bore her off — I had next Day the Pleas- 
ure of hearing (second handed) that I was an exceeding genteel 
young Fellow — now hear the Improvement — I am resolved never 
again to expose myself to be entangled in a similar scrape, or in 
other words that I will at no Time or on any Occasion whatever 
utter a syllable in the Presence of a French Lady that can un- 
derstand me — for I am confident that no Art, no Hypocrisy can 
surmount my natural Bluntness — and one rash Word might 
forfeit more than a whole Fortnight's Penance can retrieve — but 
I'm running on as wildly as if I had Ages for nothing but to 
write in & had I — I could not employ them better than in telling 
you how sincerely I am your Affecte. Brother &c. Aaron Burr. 

Remember me suitably to all my Acquaintance, but be cau- 
tious to whom you give my Love. 

LETTER III. 

Peekskill, 8tb June, 1777. 

My Dear Sister : 

I am at length within a single Days Journey of you, a single 
Day surely can't separate us long — I was left at Princeton unwell, 
but have joined the Army again in perfect Health. Mr. Bradley 
was with me a few Days past and acquainted me that you were 
much recovered. 

Edward Bujue, the faithful Fellow who has attended me for 
near a year past, will wait on you with this and some of my winter 



APPENDIX a 421 

oloathes. If I have with you any Handkerchiefs, Liunen, Cotton 
or Silk Stockings, pray send them me by Ned's Eeturn, which 
will be in about three Weeks. 

I am starved for Letters, not a single snip can I get from any 
Friend in any Quarter — my faithful Correspondent, my best, my, 
almost, only Friend, is, alas, no more — J. Bellamy's Death gave 
me Feelings, which few Deaths can ever renew. 

But why this to a Sister who feels more for a Brother than 
herself — my Pen and Heart you know were ever nearly allied. I 
left our worthy Aunt at Eliz'eth Town last Monday — her in- 
creasing Troubles have almost worn her out. She still enjoys a 
tolerable Share of Health — Mr. Pollock grows weaker in Mind 
but may live these 7 years. 

Our Army increases fast, are in good health and Spirits. The 
Prospect of public Affairs brightens to my View, but we may yet 
expect Clouds. — We are yet in Doubt whether Philada is the 
object of the Enemy, — a very short Time will probably determine. 

I want much to see you and some Litchfield Friends — I know 
not when to promise myself that Happiness — but I think this 
Month. 

With much Love to my Brother 

I am Dear Sister 

Affectionately Yours, 

A BUER. 

Desire Mr. Eeave to let me know how much Money he re- 
ceived for me, and whether he has disposed of it. 

My Aunt Pollock presents you with ^ lb. of Bohea Tea — An 
English officer made a Present of 1 lb. of Grreen Tea when I was 
lately with a Flagg — what is left of it I now send you — make 
much of it — 3 pr. Waiscoats, 2 pr. Breeches, 4 pr. Stockings. 

lettee iv. 
Deak Sally 

I am just returned from Philada and To-morrow pursue 
my Eoute Eastward — (not yet to Litchfield) that happiness must 
be a few Days more suspended — not on military Business — for I 
have no intention to rejoin the Army or any Branch of it — 

I spent the last evening with Doctor Jones of N. York, eminent 
for his good sense, his Politeness, but particularly for his Skill and 
Experience as a Physician. He has politely offered his advice and 



422 APPNjwnrx a 

endeavours in your Behalf — If you had the opinion which I have of 
his Abilities you would not fail to improve it ; he will be at Goshen 
(in this State) these two Months. It was our Sister P's Represen- 
tation unknown to me that drew his attention and interested him 
in your Welfare. When I have an Interview with you, I can urge 
many Reasons, (some of which I know you will feel) why I am 
the more anxious you should not delay to consult Doctor Jones — 
my conclusions are the Result of Reason, not Whim or Sanguine 
Fancy. 

I am on my way to Boston — the Brother of our Sister P. is 
there a Prisoner — how happy if I am his Deliverer ! I return thro' 
Litchfield — for several Reasons I cannot take it in my Way there 
— I expect to bring our Brother with me — then to take you to 
Goshen or remain at Litchfield while Mr. Reeves eschorts you — 
or attend you both — I am so bent on the experiment that nothing 
can divert me — nothing I will not encounter or do to effect it — 
the Ride will be of service at any Rate. 

I wrote you the Beginning of this Month from White Plains. 
Old Tetard will certainly live with me this Summer — if he comes 
in my Absence take good care of him and keep him alive till 
I come. 

I shall use many Arguments to induce Mr. Reeve to go imme- 
diately to Jersey — think of it seriously — 

With the warmest Affection of a Brother I am Dear Sister 

Your A. B. 

Mrs. Reeve. 
Pekkskill 25th April 1780. 

LETTER V. 

24th July ; —80 
Honest Hull is tired of this Dutch Wilderness & on his Jour- 
ney home will deliver you this — The little mare and Saddle goes 
with him — She does not at present do justice to Fredericks at- 
tendance & care of her, he has been really a faithful nurse. 

This is my third letter all of which I suppose you have reed — 
& and from a consciousness of guilt, I fancy the Light of my hand 
must be terrible to you, as it renews the conviction of your own 
negligence — I am not yet at the springs, but shall be this week — 
I was deterred by accounts of Robbers, Horse thieves, &c — at pres- 
ent I have a Security from those Apprehensions by a good honest 
boy who is to be my Companion & who is as much afraid of 



APPENDIX a 423 

Rebels as I am of Refugees — Thea is at my elbow & is this mo- 
ment pinching my Ear, because I will not say any thing about 
her to you — 

Not one word from you directly or indirectly since I left you — 
The Litchfield air gives me not a few anxious reflections — I am 
still distrustful of it — & I am not the only one that feels inter- 
ested for you — I am still a skeleton & excepting less flesh — am 
neither better or worse than when with you — I have settled my 
plans with Troup — he is now at Pattersons & I shall join him 
there when my health will allow — 

Gen. Wayne on the 21st Inst, with 1800 foot, a Regt.of Horse, 
and some Artillery, attacked a Block house in the English Neigh- 
bour, Defended by some refugee Negroes & tories — We were re- 
pulsed with the Loss of abt. fifty killed — If my trunk has come 
from Middletown I wish you would send me when you have an 
oppty the four Vols of Gril Bias which you will find in the trunk — 
If you can send them either to this place or Bartolfs at Rama- 
pough by a safe oppty I shall get them — 

My love to Patty. 
T. Reeve Esqr. 

LETTER VI. 

[no date.] 
Dear Brother, 

I have written you many letters within a few months, princi- 
pally on the subjects of Beer and money — The Beer is in Statu quo 
to wit, in my Cellar — and will be forwarded you as soon as pos- 
sible — Thea has almost broke her heart about it Since the certainty 
of peace, of which we are this evening informed — Money becomes 
more than ever necessary — I must go as soon as possible to N. 
York & must for that purpose have cash — Pray endeavor to nego- 
ciate the Treasurers Note which I took in Mothers behalf at Hart- 
ford and also the small tax Note — Perhaps Stirlings Master 
(whose name I forget) will discharge his Note — If not you must 
sell it at the best price. 

Judge Hobart will set off from Sharon for Albany, I suppose 
on the 14th of April — If you should be able to procure me any 
cash by that time, you must forward it by him — if you are obliged 
to send to Sharon on purpose — If you can on any terms procure a 
sum of money on loan (beside the notes &c I have just mentioned, 
I beg you will do it — 150£ in this way would be very convenient — 
indeed I must at all events have a sum of money from you — 



424 APP^BIX C. 

Phil behaves so ill that she is for sale — you know her qualities 
as a seamstress &c — I wish you would inquire for a purchaser — 
her price is 60£ your money, cash — I shall send you Castor as soon 
as possible. — Children are all well — talk forever of little Burr. 
Love to Sally. 

Yrs, &o. A.B. 

LETTER VII. 

[no date.] 
It is my real opinion that if I did not write to you in a twelve 
month, the thought of writing to me would never enter your head — 
but I hear from you frequently even in spight of yourself — I am 
told the brat begins to pick up — I wish he may be a much cleverei 
fellow than his father. 

The winter has I think been favorable to Sally — pray tell me 
what prospect there is of her recovery — I think often of the re- 
move to Carolina, though I should lament the necessity — I heard 
she was threatened with a swelling on the foot — how is this — my 
health is nearly established, and will be quite so when I hear of 
yours & hers — any news of my trunks or sleigh yet, or of Bradley's 
money — if you have an opportunity any time this spring, write 
him a civil letter on that subject — 

Mrs. D. V. has begged me to make inquiry after her affairs — If 
you can get a letter into the post office it will meet me — direct it 
to the care of the post master at Morristown. 

1st March. Ys. A. B. 



LETTER VIII. 

I inclose a copy of a Bond which I request you immediately to 
prosecute in such way as will most speedily produce the money, 
you see by the memorandum that the sum in the Bond is secured 
by a mortgage of Lands in Sharon. It is very interesting to me 
that you should bring this Business to a speedy conclusion — pray 
do not fail to acknowledge the receipt of this by first post — 

We are all well, are surprised we have not heard from you, 
or seen Burr — 

We have lost our youngest child, our Sally — a beautiful lovely 
Baby. Your affec. 

A. B. 

12th October, 1786. 



APPENDIX G. i25 



LETTEK IX. 

From Mrs. Theodosia Prevost to Mrs. Sarah Reeve. Litchfield. 
The writer was proiaily engaged to Col. Burr at the time. 

Deak Madam 

As you are no stranger to the partial friendship your amiable 
Brother honors me with, nor to my want of skill in the art of 
writing, I will not apologize for my present attempt — Although I 
can with propriety accuse him of a breach in confidence for hav- 
ing exposed the ignorance of his friend to a lady of your superior 
sense. 

Your ill health my Dear Madam has given me the utmost 
concern, and anxiety. Though I have not the happiness of a 
personal acquaintance. As the sister of my inestimable friend you 
are justly entitled to my highest regard and attention. Give me 
leave to assure you, I feel sincerely interested for your recovery — 
as your physician recomends exercise with change of air, I flattered 
myself with the hope of seeing you with Mr. Eeeve at the Hermi- 
tage, The Variety may perhaps produce a happy effect — You will 
find a sympathizing friend who would feel a singular pleasure to be 
in the smallest degree conducive to your recovery — who would treat 
you with the familiarity of a sister that wishes to cultivate your 
friendship. Believe me my Dear Mrs. Eeeve, your acceptance of 
my wellmeant invitation will be esteemed a particular favor con- 
fered on Your sincere friend and very 

Humble Servant 

THEODOSIA PREVOST. 
Hermitage, June 5th, 1770. 

My Best respects wait on Mr. Reeve. 

LETTER X. 

From Mrs. Prevost to Mrs. Reeve. 
Dear Sally, 

I have waited impatiently ever since the departure of Mr. Reeve 
to hear of your health, and whether he suffered no injury from 
the rain — I was in hopes the violence of the storm would have re- 
tained him my prisoner that day — but he disappointed my expec- 
tations even at the risque of his health — His desire to return 
evinced the sacrifice he had made to friendship in quitting his 



426 APPmrDlX O. 



Sally ; & redoubled my gratitude to both, for their kind at- 
tention — 

Our dear Reeve flattered me with the prospect of a visit from my 
lovely sister — The family employ themselves numbering the days, 
and rejoicing every evening to be nearer that wished for period — 
I am desirous it should arrive before the boy returns from nurse — 
as I am apprehensive you will not then, have resolution to quit 
home — 

Mv boys have our brothers leave to request from among his 
books, Martins Grammar & Virgil — they & their sisters join in 
every assurance of affection to you & yours — Adieu my dear Sally, 
Hygiaea & peace attend Thee — 

THEOD PREVOST. 
Sharon, August 3d. — 81 

Dr. S. has become a very good neighbor. 



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